


Just The Beginning

by phoenixdellaverita



Category: Danny Phantom, Gravity Falls
Genre: (gravity falls), Aged-Up Character(s), Ghost Hunter Danny, Ghost King Danny, Identity Reveal, More tags to be added, Non phantom planet compliant, Post-Canon, dipper fangilrls a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23392762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixdellaverita/pseuds/phoenixdellaverita
Summary: Dipper thought that he would never see something as weird as the Weirdmaggedon again.Boy, he was wrong.It’s not that he was expecting a normal summer - he was back to Gravity Falls after all. But he imagined a normal level of weirdness.But when a ghost hunter and physics genius shows up in the city, with a gift to Ford, and inter dimensional breaches start to open, Dipper realises that there was so much more to discover out there.The journals were just the beginning.[CURRENTLY IN HIATUS BUT NOT ABANDONED]
Comments: 169
Kudos: 376





	1. 1 - Notes, Portals and Statues

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, dear readers. This is my first DP/GF fanfiction, and the idea of the story had been in my head for a while now. @daddyphannypack on tumblr encouraged me to post this, but I must warn you - the updates won’t be regular. 
> 
> Enjoy the story!

Dipper thought that he would never see something as weird as the Weirdmaggedon again. 

Boy, he was wrong. 

It’s not that he was expecting a normal summer - he was back to Gravity Falls after all. But he imagined a normal level of weirdness. 

He and Mabel had decided to explore the woods, in a attempt to rewrite the journals after Bill destroyed them two years ago. Ford and Stan were back from their travel around the world, and Stan had taken back the management of the shop (for now). 

“Hey, Dip, is that the three you were talking about?” Said his twin, pointing to a metallic trunk.

“Yeah, the one that hid the third journal.” They were back where their adventures had started. “Good times. No worries about exams or the end of the world”

“Who would say that middle school was worse than the apocalypse?” Said Mabel, bursting out laughing. 

Dipper couldn’t help but to laugh too. That was the place where everything started! If he hadn’t left to hand some signs for Stan, who knows what would’ve happened? Maybe he would never bring back Ford. Maybe Bill would set himself free. Maybe the Weirdmaggedon would be contained in Gravity Falls forever. 

A tree branch snapped behind him. 

“RUN” yelled a male voice behind him. A boy grabbed his hand and mabel’s and started to drag them to the trees.

“HEY! What are you doing? Who are you?” Started to yell Mabel. The boy missed a step, and the girl took advantage - a nice kick in the shin. 

The boy fell to the ground. He looked over Dipper’s shoulder, terrified. “Hide. They are here” he whispered, pushing the boy to the inside of a fallen trunk. Mabel followed her brother, and the boy crawled after them. 

“Sorry for scaring you, but these weird bat eyes were following me, and they were going to get you too.” 

“Wait, like, eyes with bat wings?” Mabel looked confused “who are you anyway?” 

“Oh, sorry. My name is Danny Fenton, ghost hunter” 

=======•

Ok, I guess I should explain how Danny ended up there. Amity and Gravity are really far away from each other. 

Well, after graduating in high school (with some struggle), Danny managed to get in a experimental physics college near Amity. The classes were mostly during the afternoon, a lot of them were recorded by the teachers, so Danny had a very flexible schedule. The practical part was quite easy, since he had been messing with portals and his parent’s inventions since he was a kid. 

So, protecting the city was a but easier. Most ghosts were forbidden of causing damage or breaking any laws since he turned eighteen and became the Ghost King. He would spend half of his day in the Ghost Zone and the other half in the Mortal Realm (thanks for the “Fenton pocket portal”, a device that caused natural portals to open close to his lair. They weren’t really stable, could only stay open for a few minutes, but that was more than enough) 

That gave Maddie and Jack an excuse to teach him how to hunt ghosts (as if he didn’t knew it already, but whatever). He soon learned a few fighting moves and how to use the most complicated inventions. Heck, his father even made a business card. 

His life was wonderful. He kept contact with Sam and Tucker, the Phantom Team wasn’t going to split up so soon, and Valerie finally joined his cause - even if she didn’t knew his identity yet. 

Until Clockwork decided to show up in the middle of his summer vacations. He gave him a really beautiful wooden chest, painted in purple with some details in silver, and told him to look for Ford Pines in Gravity Falls, Oregon. He said that he should give the chest to the man and help with the imminent threat to the world. 

Honestly, the most surprising part was the content of the chests. Three red-covered books, with a six fingered golden hand in the cover. They were really worn out, one of them looked like if it had stayed in a buried box for twenty years, and the writing... it was interesting, to say the least. The part on ghosts was terribly incomplete, and he couldn’t believe in the entry about “The Hand Witch”. 

“Fairy tales?” He muttered to himself “No. I bet this is a real thing... or at least” he completed, eyeing the Multibear page “based on a real thing”

But there was one thing that bothered him. A recurrent being on the journals. Bill Cipher. 

Danny had never met the mad triangle, but he heard stories. Stories about what he did to dimensions he conquered, his mind games and tricks.

That was the biggest source of knowledge he had ever seen about Cipher. 

Danny hoped that what was written there was wrong.

He picked up his old travelling backpack from the wardrobe. Picking the clean clothes from the floor of the university’s bedroom (as any boy’s room, this one was really messy and probably a biological hazard. Nothing that Danny wasn’t used to). He was so lucky that his roommate spent most of the day studying in the library and had a heavy sleep... 

He put on his jacket. It was a gift from Sam, with leather padding in the elbows and back (really useful if you get constantly trow in walls and buildings). He attached two ecto-blasters in the inside pockets, a Fenton staff in the back and a couple of wrist rays. A thermos and another couple of blasters waited in the backpack. 

He didn’t want to turn into Phantom in Gravity Falls. It would be too suspicious. And Danny had the bad habit of breaking weapons. It was not nice when they exploded on his face. 

“I think that’s it” he muttered to himself. He turned to the door, just when his roommate opened it.

“Oh, hi Jacob. I’ll leave for a while, don’t know how long. If someone says that it’s an emergency, would you give them this?” He handled him a black piece of paper, sealed and with the DP logo on the back. 

“Sure man. You’re really a fan of Phantom, huh?” Jacob answered, looking at the logo. 

“It’s kind of a inside joke. Thanks buddy.”

He turned around and left for the back of the building, where no windows would see him opening the portal. 

Jacob was about to resume his studying when he noticed that Danny had forgotten his phone charger. “Oh, I’ll give him this” 

He ran trough the hallways, finding Danny on the back, messing with his watch (was it glowing?)

Jacob opened his mouth to tell Danny’s name when a green portal opened out of thin air. He could only stare while his roommate jumped in the inter dimensional breach, that closed by his back leaving a baffled student and a light breeze. 

=========•

Danny flew trough the zone in his human form, not wanting to call attention with his ectosignature. He soon got to the right place to open another portal, according to Tucker’s digital map on his watch. 

He appeared about ten meters in the air, above a small town close to a forest. Using a little flight and gravity, he landed invisibility in the woods. 

“All right. I need to find a place to stay.” He said to himself, straightening the leather handles on his shoulders. 

A terrifying screech echoed trough the forest. Dropping the backpack and the chest on the ground, he started to look around him. 

A squirrel started to climb a tree, and Danny was almost thinking that he had imagined the screeching when a gleam of red light illuminated the fluffy animal. 

A stone statue fell to the ground. 

Danny decided to run. 

He knew that the... thing... was following him. So when he met two kids close to a weird looking tree, he dragged them with him. They needed to stay safe, safe, safe... 

That was not the time for his Obsession to kick in. 

=====•

So, dear readers, that’s how Danny ended up with two kids in a tree trunk running away from a eye bat. 

“I’m Danny Fenton, ghost hunter”

As soon as Dipper heard the words leaving the boy’s mouth, he knew that his summer was about to get weirder.


	2. 2 - Bats, Chests and Breaches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Who would say, I’m really inspired today huh? Actually I already had half of this scribbled, and all of your comments inspired me to post a bit earlier.   
> And the plot starts!   
> Remembering that most characters here are of property of their respective creators (except for Jacob, he’s mine, and Wes Weston belongs to the Phandom, but whatever) 
> 
> You can talk to me trough tumblr, @phoenixdellaverita. Fell free to DM me!

“Wait, ghost hunter? Like in ghostbusters?” 

“That movie is really inaccurate, but yes. Can we discuss that later?” Danny had to defeat the weird... bat-things. “You two know those flying eyes?”

Oh ancients, Danny hated one eyed things. As if the observants weren’t enough. 

“Kinda” answered the girl. “They are quite weak, if you don’t beat them at the first blow they will probably go away. They usually leave after a while, unless they feel something they need to capture.” 

Danny looked to the outside of the trunk. There were five of them now, and his sharp hearing told him that there were more on their way. 

He hated to do that, but those things seemed to have noticed his ecto-signature, so they wouldn’t leave him alone.

And he had to protect those kids, they were innocent, he had to...they had to be safe.... 

(Not now, obsession! He had a mission!) 

He turned to the entrance of the wooden tunnel, grabbing an ecto blaster. Those things had to leave for good. 

======• 

Mabel had to admit, that guy was hot. 

She was way past her “obsess about boys” phase, and the dude was way older than her, but she wasn’t blind. And also, ghost hunter. If Dipper, an amateur, had looked like a badass against ghosts, how would an actual hunter look like? 

When Danny took a gun (a freaking gun!) out of his coat, she felt like she was about to find out. 

“Have you ever fired a gun before?” He asked them.

“I have a grappling hook!” Answered Mabel

“Close enough” Danny answered, taking another gun from his coat and handling it to Mabel. “If something happens to me, I want you too to look in the woods for a purple chest and give it to the owner, ok?” 

Without waiting for an answer, he bolted out of the trunk. 

It was amazing. 

Danny shot one of the eye-bats right in the pupil, and it vanished in green smoke. The other four turned to him, illuminating his body with red light. 

Mabel though he was ended, but Danny jumped out of the way. He never stood still for more than one second, and even managed to make two bats petrify each other. A few shots from the weird gun hit the trees, leaving burned holes with some kind of glowing green goo. Hell, he even jumped high enough to kick the bat in the... face? Eye? Body? 

When the last shot pierced the wing of the last bat, making it hit a tree and disappear, Danny turned around and helped them get out of the fallen tree. 

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” Yelled Mabel. It was like if the guy was a superhero!

“Thanks... huh, what’s your name? And can you give my gun back?” 

Dipper couldn’t blame Danny for looking nervous - Mabel with a gun was a terrifying thing. 

“Oh. Right. Here” she said. 

“I’m Dipper and that’s my twin sister, Mabel Pines.” Answered Dipper. He didn’t want to admit, but he was a bit impressed by Danny too. “There’s so much I want to ask you! If you don’t mind of cour-“ 

“Wait” interrupted Danny “Pines? You know Ford Pines? You know the Author?”

Danny couldn’t believe his luck. If these kids knew Ford Pines, half of his mission would be complete. 

“Why do you want to know?” Asked Mabel, suspiciously.

Dipper was bouncing with happiness. Hey, if Danny was looking for Ford, he was probably a researcher of some kind! The things he could learn! But at the same time, Danny could be trying to kill Ford or... 

“I have something that belongs to him. Can you introduce us?” Answered Danny. 

Mabel and Dipper instantly changed their postures. On one side, it could be a trap. On the other, it could be something important... and Danny did have two guns of his hands. They had seen how fast he could shoot. 

Ford was a grow man, he could take care of himself.

“Ok. But if you try anything against him...” Mabel left the treat in the air. 

Danny put the guns inside his coat. “All I want is to talk. I just have to grab my things in the woods.” 

He seemed to notice Dipper’s glare. “Calm down, these guns don’t hurt humans... your are human, right?”

That was a weird question to ask. 

Danny started to laugh, and the tension in the air dissipated. “Relax, I’m joking. Let’s go!” 

They walked in the woods for a while (for how long did Danny run?) until they found a clearing. A small purple chest and a backpack were scattered in the ground. 

“There it is.” Danny picked up his stuff. 

“Great. Let’s got to the shack then” 

=====•

The old man stared at the readings on the screen. “Unbelievable! Another breach, right above Gravity Falls” 

But this time... the readings were different. Ford couldn’t quite understand what the numbers meant - he had never seen anything like that before. 

He had to show this to Dipper. The boy was clever, he could show things that his old brain failed to see. 

Ford went upstairs. The old lab had been rebuild, without the inter dimensional portal - there were new inventions there now. And he was very proud of a few of them. 

He had just stepped outside the vending machine when the door swung open, and his nephews dragged a boy inside. 

A chill went up Ford’s spine. This boy... he radiated power. Not as much as Bill, but still... 

He was going to investigate that. 

=====•

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone, a fanged smile stretched even more.

“Do we have a deal?” 

“For sure... my friend”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do y’all think? Theories? 
> 
> Oh, I should say - English isn’t my first language, so I’m really sorry if I made/make any mistakes! I’m trying!


	3. Atbash, chest, old clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things Are delivered. THere is something Bizarre happening in grAvity fallS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, guys, I need to ask a question - do y’all want shorter chapters, with more regular updates (like this), or long chapters and really spaced updates?
> 
> By the way, I’m incorporating more of the Gravity Falls style from now on. Pay attention!

The moment Danny saw the shack, he knew something was wrong. 

He could feel the air buzzing with energy around the building. It wasn’t exactly like a ghost shield, but it was similar. 

The kids were distracted... he made his eyes shine green for one moment, enough to see the force field around the building. Weird symbols shined on the air, he had never seen anything like that before. 

Dipper was whispering something to himself, but all he could hear was “Gsv nbhgvirvh lu tizergb uzooh zivm’g hvg lm hglmv...”. His mind was somewhere else in that moment. 

Something fishy was going on. And he was going to find out what it was. 

“Sorry Dipper, I wasn’t paying attention. This shack is really... different”

“Oh, it’s ok, it’s just that I wanted to know more about ghosts, if you don’t mind, of course, because they are so cool! I fought ghosts before, it was so scary, one of them started to turn everyone into wood sculptures and-“ 

“Little brother, breathe.” Interrupted Mabel. “Sorry Danny, Dip starts to talk a lot when he gets excited. Oh, look, we’re here!”

The girl opened the wooden door, making a bell ring. It was your typical tourist trap, it even had a overpriced gift shop. 

Two gray haired man were inside the shop. One was counting money behind the cashier and the other was closing the door of the vending machine. Danny assumed that they were twins, with really different life choices. 

“Uncle Ford! We have a visit for you!” 

The vending machine dude (Danny assumed that he was Ford Pines) was looking at him suspiciously. 

Shit. 

Better play dumb, and pretend that there was nothing wrong. Maybe he just had ectoplasm in his hair again (a more common occurrence than he would like to admit). 

“Hello. I am Danny Fenton, and I assume that you’re Ford Pines?” Danny took a step closer to the guy, not invading his personal space.

Stan was also wary for the boy. Ford was tense, so there was something wrong. Discretely, he grabbed his knuckle dusters from under the counter.

“That would be my name. Why do you want to know, boy?” 

“I have something that belongs to you” said Danny, walking to the counter and putting the chest there. Ford decided that his curiosity was more important than his suspicion (and he trusted Dipper and Mabel. If Danny was a bad guy, they wouldn’t have brought him here).

The twins and Stan came closer to see the chest too. Danny lifted the buckle keeping it closed... 

And there, in the black velvet, rested three red journals. 

======• 

Ghost Zone, The Clock Tower

An ancient being looked trough the blue lenses. He was not happy with this timeline, but it was the one with the best outcome. 

He wanted to protect Daniel. He knew that the boy needed some rest. 

But that would have to wait. 

“All is as it should be” 

======•

Ford’s brain was running in circles. He tried to have a coherent tough, but all he could think were sentences closer to a key smash, Yfh Hlnvlmv rh...

First the portals, now this. 

What was going on?

“How did you get these? I though Bill had destroyed them” asked Dipper. 

“Tell me...” said Danny, takin a step backwards and looking in Ford’s eyes. “Have you ever heard the name Clockwork?” 

“Clockwork... it’s familiar. But no, I can’t remember the meaning” Ford could feel power radiating from the boy’s skin. He definitely wasn’t human.

“He is the embodiment of time itself. A few days ago, he showed up and told me to give this to you, in this town.” Danny decided that half-lies were enough. He didn’t want to blow his secret. “It took me a while to get here. I’m kinda used to this kind of stuff, I come from a lineage of ghost hunters and people linked to the supernatural” 

“I guess that when time itself asks you to do something, you gotta do it. You’re cool man.” said Mabel. 

Ford decided to trust the kid. He could’ve done so much damage with the journals, but instead he gave them back.

“By the way” asked Dipper “do you have a place to stay? The town’s hotel is really lame. I was thinking that maybe you could stay here with us!” 

“Well, not, really. I’d love to, if it’s not problem.” 

Stan started to measure the boy from head to toes. “You have a good built, boy. If you help me with the shop, we’re good. Whatcha’ say? I bet little Dip and Ford want to ask you a lot of questions”

“Of course.” He looked at Dipper. Danny was actually a bit happy for the offer - he would be able to investigate this shack. There was more there than it met the eye. “So, I’ll teach you how to hunt ghosts then.” 

Dipper’s eyes looked like tiny stars “REALLY? YOU’RE THE BEST DANNY!”

Mabel seemed equally excited to have Danny on the shack... but for another reasons. What was going on on her hear was something on the lines of: 

‘Oh, I will introduce him to Wendy. She is single and Robbie stopped obsessing about her. They will totally work together, they’re both strong, and he’s hot and hunts ghosts and is intelligent...’

She was back to playing Cupid. 

Turns out that Danny was going to share his room with the twins - Soos’ mother had moved to the basement. That might be a problem for night escapades, but, well, when you can turn invisible and go trough solid objects, that’s not much of a problem. 

=====• 

That night, Ford went down the lab with Stan. 

“That boy is not what he said he is. There’s power coming from him. Ancient power.”

“What will you do? Want me to keep one eye in the boy?” 

Ford nodded, messing with some scanners in the lab. “This should tell us what he is...” an error message showed up in the screen.

“At least, it should.”

“What does that mean?”

“He’s not from this dimension”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did y’all get the codes? 
> 
> Here is your post-credit challenge:  
> \- .... . ... . / .--. --- .-. - .- .-.. ... / .-.. . .- -.. / - --- / .- -. --- - .... . .-. / .--. .-.. .- -.-. . /  
> These ones are easy, they will get harder as time passes by


	4. 4- Hauntings, Pancakes and Cupids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost hunting! Yay!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> Anyone managed to crack the the three codes? Leave in the comments! Answers in the end notes! 
> 
> I’m kinda without internet these days, it should be solved soon, but I will read and answer all your comments and continue writing, so bear with me here. 
> 
> Here’s your chapter!

That night, for the first time in a while, Danny actually rested. No nightmares or ghosts interrupting him, no royal duties or homework. 

Of course, less ghost attacks meant the he had less physical injuries, but he still alternated his nights between the Ghost Zone and the Mortal Realm. Less tired didn’t mean actually rested. 

He instantly suspected the shield around the house. 

(You know your situation is miserable when you look for a supernatural explanation for the fact you actually slept at night.)

Dipper was still sleeping, and he supposed that the bunch of colourful sheets and glitter in the other bed was Mabel.

He knew he had been woken up. Otherwise he would sleep like the dead (pun intended) until the kids were up. The house was silent.

What was it then? 

He got up, quickly changing his clothes in the bathroom. Might as well start the day early. 

It took him a while to get to the kitchen, because he kept getting lost in the exposition (he had seen scarier things coming out of the Fenton Fridge™️. And yes, that was a thing.). Stan was making... well, that could be called a pancake if you had a really bad idea of what a pancake was. 

“Good morning boy. The kids are still asleep, huh?” Said Ford. He was reading something in a blue book, sometimes writing something down on one of the journals.

“Good morning, hum... Mr. Pines and Mr. Pines?”

“Just Stan and Ford kiddo. It’s less confusing” said Stan. He put a few pancakes in a pile, just when Dipper and Mabel showed up, still sleepy. 

“Oh, look. Stan-cakes.” Said Mabel, picking one up and starting to eat. Danny was pretty sure pancakes shouldn’t make a crunchy sound when you chew it. 

“Stan-cakes?”

“It’s pancakes, but made by Stan. It probably won’t kill you... sorry about that” answered Dipper.

“Relax... half of the food in my house comes back to life and tries to kill us.” After seeing Dipper’s stare, he completed:

“My parents are ghost hunters and ectologists. They should stop leaving ectoplasm samples on the kitchen...” 

“So ectoplasm is a real thing? Not just some Hollywood invention?” Asked Ford, suddenly interested. 

“Yes. It’s really hard to take off your hair too... learned that in the worst way possible” 

They seemed to think it was because of some experiment. Well, it was actually because of a bullet that barely missed his eye, but whatever. 

“Incredible. There’s so much more to learn..” Ford said, opening the journal on the “Ghost” entry. “Did you read this?”

“Yes... there are some inaccuracies, and the ghost you classified as a ten wouldn’t pass the level five, actually...”

“WHAT?” Shrieked Dipper “it took so much to defeat it and it’s not even half of...”

Danny started to giggle under his breath. “Relax. I saw what you wrote about... The Northwest Ghost? That’s a nice name.” Dipper’s eyes started to shine. “Nice work kid. But the silver mirror thing... so out of date. I’ll show you some modern ghost hunting stuff later, ok?”

Dipper could barely wait. 

=====• 

Mabel was excited... but for other reasons. 

Wendy was working on the cashier today, and Danny was going to help Stan and Soos with the storage. 

It was time for Mabel, The Matchmaker, to act. 

“Heeeeey, Wendy... have you noticed Stan’s new helper?”

“Huh? No.” The red haired teen looked up from her phone. “Wow. Dang. He’s hot.”

“And your know what’s the best part? Dipper and I met him in the woods yesterday. He took down like, seven eye-bats by himself. Well, I guess that’s expected from a professional ghost hunter...”

“Wow. That’s so cool. He would be useful when Dipper had to face that weird Northwest ghost.”

Yes, her plan was working. 

“Hey, Mabel... where should I put this?” Asked Danny, carrying a weird... rabbit thing. What was the name again? Jackalope? 

“Put it anywhere tourists can see it! With a sign. Hey, Danny... I was thinking, there is this abandoned shop, and it’s definitely haunted. Wanna go there after the shop closes?” Asked Mabel. Dipper took his head off the book he was reading. 

“Pleasepleasepleaseplease...” Mabel peeked at what he was writing. It looked like a code, but for her it made no sense. N=13, 11-5-25-5-4-0-3-1-5-19-1-18-0-9-19-0-20-8-5-0-3-15-4-5... and so on. 

Danny laughed, shaking his shoulders. “Fine. Fine.”

“I think we’re done for today boys. There aren’t many tourists today. You guys can go.” Said Stan, entering the room, completely unaware of the previous conversation. “Soos, you can go too” 

A voice came from behind some shelves “All right Mr. Pines!”. A tall guy came out, and stopped when he saw Danny. “And who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Danny Fenton. I guess we haven’t met. I’ll stick around for a while.”

“That’s nice dude. So, what’s your weirdness?” 

“Excuse me?” Danny was baffled. His eyes were glowing again? He hadn’t frozen anything today, had he?

“Everyone in Gravity has something different!” Answered Mabel. “Look at me, I’m super happy! Dipper is a bookworm, no one beats Wendy in the woods, and Soos is... well, Soos.”

“Yeah, everyone has something. Ford is a genius, Stan is wanted in half of the country... actually, the only normal person here is Ted-normal-guy.” Completed Wendy. 

“Yeah. He’s weird.” Finished Dipper. “But I guess that’s being a ghost hunter is more than enough”

Soos’ fangirl genes activated by the last words. “YOU’RE GHOST HUNTER?” 

‘Here we go again...’ Danny though. 

=====•

After a few minutes of preparation, they all met by the tree line. Wendy had somehow managed to get an axe, Mabel had a grappling hook, Dipper was carrying one of the journals and Soos... well, Danny wasn’t sure what he counted as a ghost fighting weapon, but he had a really big backpack. 

Danny felt almost sorry when he had to break the news for them. Almost. 

“Hum... that won’t work agains a strong ghost. You know they can turn intangible, right? Go trough stuff? You can’t use anything physical.”

“What? All of those movies lied to me!” Soos looked broken. Poor guy. 

“But then how are we going to...” started to say Dipper, but was interrupted by Mabel. 

“THAT PRETTY GUN! THAT FIRES GREEN STUFF!” 

Danny took his ecto-blaster from his jacket. “That’s right. This is a ecto weapon, that means it can affect ghosts. There are staffs and spears too, but they are harder to make. But I doubt that we will have to fight, most ghosts leave with some talking, ok? Especially weak ones.”

Dipper eagerly took a pen and started to write it down on his journal. “It’s so interesting...”

Danny wished he were that energetic when he was 15. Oh, well, he barely had three hours of sleep per day that time.

“Let’s go, then? I’ll explain more on my way.”

Yes... that was just what Mabel wanted. 

She managed to get Soos to cover their backs, and lined up with Dipper in the middle. According to all her romance books, that’s when Danny and Wendy should talk and start to notice they had a lot on common. 

And, well... they did talk. Laughed a bit. But where was the chemistry? The sad childhood stories? 

“You okay Mabel?” Asked Dipper “are you feeling ok? Should we go back?”

“I’m fine.” She answered. She truly was fine. Her plan, not so much. 

“Here we are. Dusk 2 Dawn, the haunted convincer store.” Said Wendy. “Looks haunted?”

Except for the weird graffiti in the entrance - what what written? Random letters? Danny could only read “Fbzrbar vf zber vagryyvtrag guna gurl ybbx yvxr” - it looked like a normal convence store. 

“It’s hard to say if a place is haunted. Trust me, I come from a town that’s entirely haunted, literally.”

“You mean, Amity Park?” Asked Soos. 

Danny was surprised. Someone knew Amity Park?

“Yeah. You know it?”

“Are you joking dude? I love that town. I mean, a haunted city? That’s awesome! And they have a superhero. A real-life superhero. Like, an actual hero. I’d give everything to meet Phantom.” Answered Soos. Now that he mentioned, Dipper and Mabel could remember hearing something about that too. 

“I always though it was another tourist trap.” Commented Wendy. 

‘Anything to meet me?’ Though Danny. ‘That’s funny. I’ll fly here again when this is over.’

“Amity is a nice place to live, after you get used to the ghost attacks. Anyway, let’s get in this shop, shall we?”

=======•

Turns out, the shop was actually haunted. The moment Danny stepped in, his breath condensed in the air. Ghost sense. Luckily, no one noticed that.

“Oh, this place is haunted.” He pretended to look at his watch, another of his mom’s inventions - it was like a smart watch, but it only worked for ghost stuff instead of, y’know, showing the time. It was also a portal. 

“Cool watch man.” Commented Soos. “Futuristic.”

“So, how do we find the ghosts?” Asked Dipper. “Last time, I accidentally fell where they were murdered and.. well, it was pretty terrifying after that.”

“Wait, this is not just their haunt? This is their deathbed? No wonder why they got annoyed man. Deathbeds have a deep connection to your ghost.”

“FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS!” An eerie voice sounded. The ones from Gravity immediately grabbed the shelves, or something stuck to the ground, thing that Danny though a bit odd. “WHO AR— IT’S YOU!”

Shit. The ghost knew who he was? He couldn’t blow his secret so easily. 

Fortunately, luck was on his side today. 

“Goat Boy!” A green figure materialised behind Dipper. An old woman, with a glowing green skin. 

Goat boy? He was asking about that later.

“And who are you, kid?” Said a second ghost, this time an old man, approaching Danny. But before he could answer, the ghost went on: “bah! It doesn’t matter. None of you will ever leave this shop!”

“We hate teenagers”

And in that moment Danny knew he was screwed. 

=====• 

Mabel could only stare as the ghost’s eyes started to shine. Gravity started to change, and she knew what was coming. 

Well, what would come, if Danny hadn’t pointed a gun to the ghost’s face. The old man froze, and so did his wife.

“You’re not a looser than, boy. Who are you?” 

“I don’t think that matters.” Danny barely seemed to notice that he was half-floating in the air. “Let the kids go.”

Danny though he would just show up, talk to the ghost, and they would leave. He didn’t like to disturb a deathbed, but they were threatening people. That was probably their obsession. Who could know what would happen when no teen entered the shop? They might hurt people, and he couldn’t let that happen, could he? 

“Oh? And what are you going to do, punk?”

Danny readjusted his aim. A smoking hole ended up in the wall. “Get off the town. Don’t hurt these people. You can do it willingly, or I can force you”

The ghost retrieved a bit. That was just what Danny needed. 

He uncapped the thermos behind his back, and aimed at the ghost. The blue light absorbed him.

“Oh, BRAT!” The female ghost tried to make things float at him, but Soos got in the way, trowing the big and heavy backpack on the way of the big shelves. Danny turned the thermos on again.

It was over. 

Things went back to the ground with a loud noise. No one was hurt, and the only clues of what happened where the mess and the hole in the wall. 

It was time to head back to the shack. 

======•

A fanged smile reflected the light. Glowing eyes looked at the readings in front of the being.

“Found you”

Cipher was about to be pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, y’all want the answers, right? 
> 
> Last chapter, there were three codes. The morse code in the end, and two hidden in the chapter. 
> 
> The first one was: 
> 
> but all he could hear was “Gsv nbhgvirvh lu tizergb uzooh zivm’g hvg lm hglmv...”. 
> 
> The second one was: 
> 
> Ford’s brain was running in circles. He tried to have a coherent tough, but all he could think were sentences closer to a key smash, Yfh Hlnvlmv rh...
> 
> Both were Atbash ciphers, as said in the chapter title: Atbash, Chest, Old Clock, and in the summary - if you take all of the capital letters, they spell Atbash. 
> 
> They translate to: 
> 
> The mysteries of Gravity Falls aren’t set on stone/but someone is. 
> 
> And now, the morse code. 
> 
> \- .... . ... . / .--. --- .-. - .- .-.. ... / .-.. . .- -.. / - --- / .- -. --- - .... . .-. / .--. .-.. .- -.-. . /
> 
> It was on the end notes, and translates to “these portals lead to somewhere else”.
> 
> Good luck with this chapter’s codes!


	5. Same Code, First Deal, Notebook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions are asked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Here’s your chapter. The answers for the last one’s codes are on the end notes.
> 
> Thanks you all who commented on this story so far, it really inspires me to write a bit more.

When they got out of the store, it was already dark. No one wanted to talk for the first minutes, they were still catching their breath.

“Dude...” started Soos “that was awesome.”

“Hey, you saved me. Those shelves were going to hit me in the head.” 

“What is that thermos thing?” Asked Dipper. “Was it like the silver mirror?”

Danny shrugged. “Kinda. Strong ghosts can escape the thermos, so you have to weaken them first. That’s what the guns are for. But the thermos can hold more than one ghost, and is way more resistant.”

“Cool. How many ghosts can you fit in there?” Asked Mabel. 

“The maximum I’ve ever had to put here is fifteen, but they were really small ghosts. It’s not nice to be stuck there.”

Only after the words left his mouth he noticed what he had just said. 

“And how do you know that?” Asked Soos. “It can capture humans too?”

“Oh? No, a ghost told me. Yeah. You can’t be captured by this.”

It was suspicious, Danny knew ir. Luckily they wouldn’t notice. 

“Now, Dipper... Goat Boy?

Dipper instantly got red. “Not important”

“I think it is, bro-bro. If you don’t tell, I will”

Mabel really was a little devil sometimes.

========•

Jacob couldn’t comprehend what he had seen. 

Of course he had encountered natural portals before. He had visited Amity many times to see his cousin. Heck, some even opened inside the college’s ground, it was close enough of Amity for that. (The physics department went nuts when it first happened)

He had even seen people falling down on them. Usually, they returned after a while (it could be immediately, it could some time later, because the portal opened in the future). If someone got stuck in the G.Z., Phantom usually saved them after a while. He never took more then one day. 

So, when 24 hours passed, the boy had to accept the simple truth - Danny Fenton had jumped into a portal by free will. 

No one did that. It was suicide, you can’t tell when or where it will drop you. One girl once came back, and started to write in the walls. But it was all random letters. There were some drawn on the foot of his bed (she had been his previous roommate). Wnpbo’f vavgvnyf ner W.J... and so on. 

Worse, he had a strong suspicion that his roommate purposely opened the portal. Or at least knew that it would happen there. 

But why? The ghost zone was full of... well, ghosts. A lot of them weren’t really nice to living people, and a few were really powerful. Ok, Danny was a ghost hunter. Jacob wasn’t blind, he knew the boy had weapons.

He hadn’t told anyone because, unlike his father, he seemed to know how to actually use them, and didn’t carry them around all the time.

With his head spinning, he did the only thing he could - call someone who knew a lot about the oddities of Amity Park.

“Hey, cousin, how you doing?” He said when the phone was answered. “Look, what do you have to say about the Fenton kid?”

======•

“So, kids, how was the ghost hunting? Caught anything?” Asked Stan when they got in the house.

“Oh my gosh, Mr. Pines, it was amazing.” Said Soos.

“We got the couple that was haunting the store. But I would recommend to leave the place alone.” Completed Danny.

“Fantastic!” Said Ford. “Now, where are the ghosts? There’s so much I want to discover!”

These words send a chill trough Danny’s spine. Was he taking about experimenting on them? 

Oh, no. That wasn’t going to happen. 

“I’m sorry, Ford, but you won’t get close to them. I’ll set them free in the Ghost Zone and make sure that they don’t get back, I can give you any information you want. They are people, not lab rats.”

Ford was a bit shocked by these words. For one moment, the boy seemed to be an entirely different person. He was pretty sure that his eyes shined green for a moment, and the air felt a bit colder. 

“I wasn’t planning on doing that. I just wanted to ask some questions, that’s all.” Danny seemed to calm down after these words. That made him wonder - what had happened to the boy? Had anyone... tried to experiment on him? 

“Good. But trust me when I say, the best thing to do is to let them go. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry”

“You mean, like and exorcism?” Asked Dipper 

“That’s so old-fashioned. And unnecessary, it leaves you weak and fragile for a while. After all, it is a forced inter dimensional travel, and those are never pleasant”

Someone in the room instantly noticed the use of the word “you”. As if the boy had been trough and exorcism before...

“You? Like, you know how it feels?”

“Oh? No. You, as in, your soul. Sorry, my mistake. It was a ghost who told me this too.”

Danny knew he wasn’t convincing, but the damage was done. No need to keep poking it with a stick. 

“Anyway, you guys should get ready to sleep.” Said Stan. “Danny, you will take care of those two in the... is that a thermos?” 

“Yes. Long story.”

“Well, you take care of the thermos, and we meet in the kitchen for dinner.”

With that, Danny left to the woods. When he was deep enough for the light of the portal go unnoticed, he opened the breach and flew in. 

When the old couple was out of the thermos, they instantly started to yell at him. 

“STUPID PUNK! teenagers, all the same...”

Yeah, right. He was going to show them the “teenager”.

The two rings spread trough his body. The cold wave came with the lack of weight he learned to enjoy. 

“What were you saying?” His voice echoed trough the Zone. He could feel the cold power radiating from his skin, and with a mental command, he summoned his crown and ring. 

They had changed with his coronation. The ring was no longer the ring of rage, but the ring of peace, made of pure black metal, a nice contrast with his glove. 

And the crown was now the crown of ice, resting among his white hair, a delicate piece of blue crystals that slowly turned transparent on the sharp points. It was light and eerie, quite different from Pariah’s - that was brute and robust. 

“King Phantom! I’m sorry sir, we didn’t recognise you!” Apologised the woman. 

“Whatever. Let’s make a deal - you leave Gravity Falls for a while, go on a vacation or something, I’ll make sure that the store remains untouched. But in return, you won’t hurt anyone in Gravity Falls ever again. Harmless pranks are ok, but there’s a line here. Deal?”

“Yes sir, of course!” 

“Good. Now, leave.”

After those words, the ghosts vanished. Danny could feel them flying away, so he opened the portal again and flew back to Gravity Falls. 

That way, they would be far away if something bad happened to Gravity. And that would solve the problem of people getting hurt because of teenager bravado.

After landing, he switched back and walked to the shack, the empty thermos hanging from his belt.

========•

Dipper and Mabel had just turned around to go upstairs when Ford and Stan called them back. 

“Kids... we have a serious thing to discuss.”

“What is is, uncle Ford?”

“Tell me... what do you think of Danny?”

For Dipper, that was such a weird question to ask. Danny was a bit odd, but he seemed like a nice person. Mabel seemed to agree with him. 

“I mean, the guy is cool. He did save Mabel and Dipper when he could have just left them behind in the forest. I don’t know, Mr. Pines, if he wanted to do harm, he had all the opportunities today. A grappling hook and an axe are nothing against those guns.” 

“He definitely has a secret” said Soos, surprising everyone. “What? He said a lot of weird things today. A ghost told me... oh, come on! That’s a typical play dumb situation! I bet he has something to do with ghosts, more than ghost hunting. He probably is a superhero, or some-“ suddenly, Soos gasped

“HE IS PHANTOM!”

A dead silence (hehe..) fell over them all.

“Nah.” Replied Mabel. “Remember? He is from a ghost hunting lineage. They would know.”

“And he is clearly alive. You can’t be dead and alive at the same time, right Ford?”

“Sure kids. Thank you... you can go to sleep now.”

Soon, Dipper and Mabel were in their room. Dipper eyed Danny’s stuff. 

“Hey... I think Soos is right.”

“What? No way, Danny isn’t a superhero.”

“No, not about that. But he is hiding something. I want to know what it is.”

Without saying a word, Dipper locked the door and Mabel opened his backpack. In the middle of the clothes, rested a notebook and a laptop.

“Do you think you can crack the password, bro?”

“With some time. Let’s take a look at the notebook first.”

It was like a personal journal. Diagrams and calculations that Dipper couldn’t even start to understand. But a lot of works were recurring: Portal, dead realm, dimensions, flipsides, cores, lairs, realms... it was like a study about a different dimension. Was that the Ghost Zone Danny mentioned? 

Oh yes. After a while, the term G.Z. Started to pop up. Then, ancients, clockwork... what even was that notebook? 

“We need to show this to Ford”. Dipper couldn’t agree more with his sister. 

Footsteps in the ladder leading to the basement. Dipper quickly put the things back, Mabel unlocked the door, and they sat down in the ground. Just as the door opened, Mabel grabbed a bunch of UNO cards and started to distribute between her and Dipper. 

“Hey, I love that game. Can I play too?” Asked Danny.

“Sure” 

And no one suspected anything. 

======•

On his way back, Danny stumbled upon a very weird statue. At first he thought it was just some odd looking rock, but when he used his phone’s flashlight to illuminate it (he really should charge his phone soon)....

Cipher.

Who, in their full state of mind, would make a statue of Cipher?

But when he got a bit closer, he could feel the energy emanating from it. It was not like the shack, his ghost sense or an electric discharge... it was the lack of something. The lack of a soul, the void that you could only feel in dead bodies. But at the same time... there was a mental pull from the statue. As if it was in coma, the mind drifting away from the body.

That was the corpse of Bill Cipher.

Ford Pines had some questions to answer.

======• 

In the same moment, Ford was connecting the last wires of his newest energy scanner. It would use the memory from all of the others and detect patterns of energy, while also having a strong detection. Maybe it would identify what Danny was.

When he turned it on, it almost immediately detected a dimensional breach, just like the mysterious one that had opened one day ago. Then, it vanished. 

A few moments later, random letters started to show up in the screen: Fbbf, lbh’er n zvfhaqrefgbbq travbhf. Ur’f n Cunagbz!

Soon, he decoded them. These data... these breaches were portals. To... and entirely different dimension.

After that, another spike of energy. Smoke started to fill the room, and he soon shut down the scanner. 

But not before he had some preliminar data. Something powerful had gone trough the portal, then vanished.

No, not vanished, as the weaker sensor told him. Diminished. It was hidden. 

It wasn’t as strong as Bill. No... but it was stronger than anything in Gravity Falls. 

Danny Fenton had some questions to answer. 

========•

In the end, the questions waited until the next morning. Danny woke up, way before sunset (he had gotten used to wake up in the middle of the night), changed his clothes and went down. Maybe he could look at the shack more closely. 

When he got to the first floor, a faint smell of smoke hit his senses. He opened the door to the kitchen. 

Ford was fixing some weird invention on the table, a small trail of smoke coming from the device on his hands. So that’s why the house smelled as if someone was burning plastic. 

“Good morning, Mr. Pines. Whatcha doing?”

“Oh? Hi kid. Call me Ford, please. There is a lot of Pines on this house.”

Danny leaned on the table. “Is that a quantum scanner? I build one of those when I was fifteen. May I?”

The old man stepped aside. It took Danny a few minutes, but he soon found the problem - two wires had melted under the circuit board, making it crack. 

“You will have to replace this. You tried to process something, and the sensor couldn’t take it. See? The problem isn’t the board, is the wiring. You should try more resistant ones.”

Ford was looking at him with a weird look in his eyes. “What are you, boy? And don’t try to hide from me.” He reached for his plasma gun. “I noticed”

Danny when from happy and dorky to a serious face when he heard that. “So, you did, huh? I guess there’s no hiding from some people.” He put down the scanner. “I guess that this blowing up when you turned it on this night was a given.”

He stared deep down in Ford’s eyes. The old man felt a chill running down his spine: there it was, that presence again. 

“Ok. I’ll tell you. But in exchange... you will tell me what is going on with this town. I noticed it too - the pull. The mystical field.”

Danny sat down by the table. Ford knew that he wasn’t requesting his collaboration - he was demanding that. He pulled a chair. 

“Have you ever heard of a town called Amity Park?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the answers for last chapter’s codes:
> 
> The first one was on dipper’s notebook:
> 
> It looked like a code, but for her it made no sense. N=13, 3-1-5-19-1/9-19/20-8-5/3-15-4-5... and something. 
> 
> All you had to do was substitute the numbers for their respective letters. A=1 and so on. It would be:
> 
> Keyed Caesar is the code n=13. The n means that the key, or the substitution number, is 13. 
> 
> The second one was on keyed Caesar, key 13. 
> 
> Except for the weird graffiti in the entrance - what what written? Random letters? Danny could only read “Fbzrbar vf zber vagryyvtrag guna gurl ybbx yvxr” - it looked like a normal convence store. 
> 
> It translates to: someone is more intelligent than they look like. 
> 
> That was it. Only two codes this time.   
> Good luck on this chapter!


	6. Beaufort, Phantom, Cipher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few conversations, Danny bonds with the kids, Ford gets a new obsession (poor Danny)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry it took me so long, I had some... internet issues. 
> 
> I’ll post the answers for the riddles on the end notes, as a usual.

“I don’t understand how that’s possible... how someone can be dead and alive at the same time...” Said Ford after Danny’s story. 

The boy had told him about how he was caught in the portal accident, about his parents (Ford was going to have a deep talk about that with him later. Being hunted by your own family was bound to generate some psychological issues). He told him about how Clockwork, the Time Ghost (Ford had to think about that too) had told him to deliver the chest and stay around. 

And, of course, his secret identity.

Of course Ford knew who Phantom was. Phantom is the key to discover the secrets of Amity Park. He didn’t live under a rock, for fuck’s sake. 

He hadn’t connected the boy’s surname to the Fentons at first, after all, everyone in the shack just called him Danny. Hell, he had even mailed the couple of scientists once. 

Which only left him more surprised. He had no reason to suspect the boy, after all. 

“I don’t really know either. I mean, I have my theories, but it’s not like I am a scientist. And I can’t really talk about it with my parents.” 

“Well... I don’t have much to say, except that I am sorry for being suspicious of you”

“It’s not like I wasn’t investigating you too. I noticed the force field, y’know?” Then his posture became way more serious. Now Ford could see Phantom on him. “But... that leads us to another thing.”

Ford knew what was coming. It doesn’t mean that he wanted to talk about it. 

“Bill Cipher” 

There it was. 

“Yes. We defeated him a few years ago”

“And left his corpse in the woods?”

What. “Excuse me?”

“His corpse. Y’know, the stone statue? His mortal remains? In the woods? I passed by when I went open the portal. There’s something there - I’m pretty sure Bill is still alive. Well, I don’t think you can kill Bill...”

“That’s impossible! We erased him from this plane of existence!”

“Well, this plane, but... there are more. From what I read in your journals, he has more than three dimensions, right? As in, more than just body, mind and soul?” When Ford nodded, he continued “well, maybe you only erased his existence on the mind, you erased his conscience but not his essence.”

“What do you mean by that? He still has some power left?”

“Maybe. If someone gave him a physical body, I guess he would be able to recover. With ghosts, we have a thing called overshadowing. Heck, even I had to do it once. You basically use the body of someone else trough their mind, which is pretty similar to what Bill does.

“Are you saying that Bill is overshadowing someone? And using them to, what? Recover his body?”

Danny shrugged “dunno. I think he was weak after you defeated him, but not gone. And someone offered him the power to recover - maybe they shared their minds until Bill built enough power. It’s possible.”

“So, what you’re saying is... Bill is still alive”

“And coming for the shack.”

========•

Danny and Ford decided to wait until Stan came down to decide what they would do. Read: if they would tell the children (+ Soos). 

An awkward silence fell over them. It wasn’t every day that you met a rare supernatural creature that was sent by the closest thing of a ghost god to save you and return your research. Or met a hyper intelligent man who may or may not be thinking about including you on said research.

Forget it. Ford was already scribbling something on one of the journals.

“The name is Halfa”

“What?”

“The name of what I am. Most people call me Halfa. Half-a ghost, half-a human. For the title of whatever you’re writing over there”

Ford muttered something under his breath.   
“WawpXgbeCsaqAswUmBtvtlqEgtvObnXz....”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

“Ah, ok”

The minutes stretched even more. That was an awkward silence.

None of them knew what to say. 

Finally, Stan came to the kitchen. Danny never though that he’d be so relieved to see a grumpy old man. 

“Stan! We need to talk!”

“Huh? About what?”

Ford put away the journal - was that a drawing of his face under a calligraphy title? - and turned to Stan.

“About Bill Cipher”

=========• 

Dipper and Mabel cane down the stairs to find a peaceful scene. Stan was... well, it can’t be called cooking if what is being cooked is barely edible... and Ford was writing something down on the journal. It looked like a new entry. 

Sometimes, he would ask something to Danny, and he would answer with a “yes” or “no” 

“I should code this. What kind of code you suggest, Dip?”

“I’ve been studying Beaufort recently. It’s not very famous, but you need a key”

“Fantastic.” Ford wrote some numbers down with the invisible ink pen. Dipper could read the first ones 15-8-1-13-19 and one more, but Dipper couldn’t read upside down.

“That’s an interesting key. Adequate.” Commented Danny. 

“Kids, the shop is closed today. Why don’t you go out and show the town to Danny?” Suggested Stan. 

Mabel saw another opportunity to play Cupid. This time her plan wasn’t going to fail.

=========•

Danny finished to answer some questions for Ford, and met the kids by the door. They decided to show him the woods first, to meet some of their friends.

Turns out, the friends were a group of minotaurs, the Multibear - that might be the weirdest creature he had met, and a lot of ghosts were really, really weird - and the lake. Apparently there was legend about a monster in the lake, but it turned out to be just a machine driven by the local madman (and yes, that was a thing). 

“Isn’t that the plot of a Scooby Doo movie?” He asked. The kids didn’t know the answer - he was definitely watching those films with them after this all ended. Probably when he came to visit Soos as Phantom.

Oh no. He had packbonded with the kids. He could feel his obsession telling him to end the problem, take them out of Gravity Falls, leave them safe somewhere Cipher couldn’t find them...

Shit. As if a whole town wasn’t enough.

They ended up meeting Wendy on the entrance to the city. She was taking with some friends, leaning casually on a suspiciously new statue - the base was really old, but knees up it was brand new.

“Hello Wendy!” Said Dipper “hi Robbie, Tammy. Where are the others?”

“Hi Dip. They had some stuff to solve, apparently they set someone’s clothes on fire.”

“And I though my friends were crazy.” Commented Danny.

“Hey Danny! This are Robbie and Tammy. Guys, this is Danny.”

Danny looked at the couple. They looked a bit goth, but he couldn’t say for sure... the girl was messing with her phone, muttering something about a status update, and the boy seemed to be angry at something.

Before Danny could say “phantom”, Mabel had dragged the trio with them to the tour around the city. Wendy proved to be a good company, she reminded him of Sam - brave, strong...

Only then he noticed Mabel’s little game. So that’s why they kept bumping into Wendy. 

She wasn’t going to succeed. His hearth already belonged to someone else - a certain goth from Amity Park. Not like she knew about that... he was too shy to tell her.

=========•

In the end, the group of teens decided to meet in the next day. Apparently, Robbie’s band was going to practice for a show, and they decided to incide Danny and the twins to see te rehearsal. 

After the tour (that town managed to be weirder than Amity Park), they went back to the shack. He and Ford tried to plan what they would do, but with no hints of who was helping Bill they couldn’t really plan anything. (because both of them agreed that Bill would need help to recover from the last fight).

If it had been a ghost, Danny would have to fly all the way back to and from Amity with heavy ghost shields for the whole town, and it might not even work! Who knew what Bill could do?

And if they were a human, it was even more unpredictable. Or they could be another creature. 

No, the best plan was to have no plan at all - wait until they had more information. That left them with plenty of time to worry and be anxious.

Well, Ford seemed to escape the worries by working. And working, for him, meant researching magical creatures.

Unfortunately for Danny, he was the creature he was currently obsessed about.

So, he spent the rest of the day ditching Ford, playing games with Dipper and Mabel. By dinner, Ford had given up on asking questions and was currently being the DM on a heated game of Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons. 

“Ok, I cast and Ice Beam!” Danny trowed the dice, getting a nat 17. “Yeah! Say goodbye to that plant monster, Ford!”

“With the ice attack of Sir. Opera, the plant monster Over Growth is defeated. The village is rescued from his green tentacles!”

Dipper and Danny started to celebrate their victory, soon followed by Mabel. Danny was playing a Knight, Dipper was playing and Archer and Mabel was their Priestess, with healing powers. 

“But! When your think you’re safe, in the middle of the celebration... A invulnerable rock monster comes down from outer space!”

“Oh, come one grunkle Ford! You’re making thinks up now.” 

“Yeah. A giant rock from outer space? And no one can destroy it? That sounds like a bad ending for a series after it was cancelled too soon...” said Danny

“You can be more creative than that, gruncle Ford!” Added Mabel 

Ford started to laugh softly. These kids...

“Ok, ok. I’ll think about an ending and we go on with this tomorrow. Now, off to bed you two.”

After some complaining, the trio went up the stairs. Danny sat down by his cushion in the ground, opening his notebook. He was going to add some intel on those two ghosts and the eye-bats. 

After a while, Dipper crawled by his side, making a really confused face to the notebook.

“Ugh, j can’t understand half of that...”

“Calm down Dip. This is ecto biology and ecto physics. I don’t think there are more than five people in the world who can understand this”

“So it’s not a conspiracy to crush our dimension?”

“Hum... no? Why would you think that?”

Dipper looked really embarrassed now. “I might have... looked into that before... last night. Sorry Danny, is just that after everything that happened to us, we wanted to be sure! You’re a nice person, but...”

Danny started to laugh, which only left dipper more confused. “Relax. It’s ok, Dipper. I mean, I wouldn’t trust myself if I showed up by my door either.”

Well, he had showed up by his door before, after Vlad’s last attempt of cloning, but that was a story for another day. 

Dipper felt so relived. He trusted Danny, of course he did, bet he had also trusted Bill once. But his new friend had done nothing to break that trust, not even after Dipper confessed peeking on his stuff. 

‘Ah, screw it. Danny is a good person, I can feel it’ he thought. ‘I’ll trust him’

=========•

In the next day, they got ready to go to the band rehearsal. Mabel and Dipper said that there was a shortcut trough the woods, so that was the path they took.

Danny kept hearing weird noises in the trees. It was like a metallic screech, but really low, so he could be just making them up. 

“Do you hear that noise?”

“No... the forest is silent...” answered Mabel

“Maybe too silent.” Completed Dipper

And it was true - the forest was completely quiet. Not even the wind made any noise. 

Then, slowly - tic, tic, tic - the sound of metal against metal. It was completely random. 

“This isn’t good...” whispered Dipper. 

Danny finally noticed what was making the sound - a bird in the trees. The pitch black feathers were a bit odd, with a metallic tint. They seemed... sharp?

Then, the sound came from behind him. From his side. Up. Right. Left. Tic tic tic - the sound of the feathers touching each other when they moved. 

Toc, toc toc. The beaks opening and closing. Tic. Tic... The light was reflecting on dozens of metallic birds now. Danny could see their eyes - a luminous white. 

They were surrounded.

“Let’s back up... slowly.”

Someone (Danny didn’t know who, it could’ve been any of them) stepped on a dry leaf. 

SCREEEEEEEEEECH

All the hell broke loose. 

The birds - with their razor sharp beaks, knife-like wings - came down from the trees. They were raining on their heads, a cloud of death and metallic singing.

Danny felt blood. Pain. 

His obsession kicked in. 

He had to save those kids. Even if it cost his life. 

So, he did the only thing he could think of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the answers. 
> 
> Both were on Caesar, key 13, as stated in the title - Same Code. 
> 
> The first one, on the foot of Jacob’s bed, translated to: Jacob’s initials are J. W.   
> I wonder what is his full name? 
> 
> And the second, on Ford’s scanner, was: Soos, you’re a misunderstood genius. He’s a Phantom! 
> 
> Here’s a bonus code for ya: 
> 
> Nawlj vfl wamfuvx tv Gpxkvwwv
> 
> Good luck!


	7. Stimphalyan, Wail, Feathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a noisy chapter...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys. Sorry for the suspense on the last chapter. But I had to do it... 
> 
> I also have to thank @daddphannypack for helping me a lot with this chapter and the rest of the story. You’re awesome! 
> 
> Here’s the conclusion. This chapter references one of my favourites from Gravity Falls, the zombie party one. And the best power of Danny, of course. 
> 
> If you want to read this chapter with the right soundtrack, google “The Pretender” by Foo Fighters and press play when your reach “rock and roll”. 
> 
> The music belongs to the band, it’s only being used in this story.

For Mabel, the birds could be beautiful if wasn’t for the fact that they were trying to kill them. 

Their metallic singing was like a music box, sound resonating on metal. Their feathers were also melodic, like small pieces of metal cascading down the air. 

Of course, she only realised that later. Her mind was a bit busy running in circles inside her head. 

That’s why she only noticed what happened a minute too late.

Danny suddenly was in from of the twins, with his back turned to the birds. He held them on his arms, like a hug. (His eyes... had they always been that green?) 

A flash of light illuminated the forest.

========•

“Danny Fenton? Why are you asking about that brat?”

“Well... you are always so interested on ghosts and the Fentons, and I saw a really weird thing today.” Answered Jacob. 

“What?” Asked his cousin “what kind of thing? It might be the proof I was looking for”

“I don’t know much about Amity. I mean, the college is close to the town but not that much... but I think he opened a portal to the ghost zone?”

“Stay there. I’m coming”

That had been a few hours ago. Now, Jacob was getting up from the couch to answer the doorbell - who could be visiting at midnight? He was almost finishing the last episode of Lucifer, dammit! 

Deep down on his mind, Jacob knew it could only be one person - his cousin. The crazy conspiracy theorist. 

Speaking of the devil, there he was. Backpack and all. Jacob sighed, looking at the paused TV. His series would have to wait until the morning. 

“Look, I can’t say I’m surprised. But... you could have waited until the morning.”

“And miss this chance? Never!” Answered the only and one Wes Weston. 

============•

“So, Danny did the only thing he could think of”

He blocked the birds’ attack with his body. He had no time to transform, and no way to attack them right now.

But he did manage to put a ectoplasm shield between them and most of the birds. The ones who had already managed to reach them, he blocked with his body. 

Well, a few more scars to the collection.

A lot of birds hit the shield face-first, giving them enough time to run away. Using the trees on their advantage, the trio soon reached a house. They bursted trough the door, closing it on their backs. 

“What the [Waw uxa ec otj pbj pqw szdtvqwv]?” A voice said behind them. 

“Oh. Hi, Robbie. Wendy.” Said Mabel “we were coming to the rehearsal, then this weird birds started to attack us, so we ran and I guess we were close to your house...

“Sorry for breaking in...” a loud thumph interrupted Dipper. Looking trough the peephole, Danny spotted a long feather stuck to the door.”

“Great. Then can fire their feathers too.” 

“DANNY! YOUR BACK!” Yelled Mabel. 

Oh yeah. He was bleeding. After a while, he stopped noticing it.

That seemed to shake Wendy out of her stupor. “Come on man. I’ll grab a first aid kit. You kids, close the windows. They have a wood panel.”

They promptly obeyed. Danny almost argued that he was fine, his back wasn’t hurting so much. But then he remembered what Tucker and Sam always told him - “one day, you will brush off your wounds so much that someone will find out your secret. worse, you will finish dying, your self sacrificial bastard”

So, he went with Wendy and Robbie to the bathroom.

“Take off your shirt. Robbie, get me a first aid kit, please.”

“We should focus on the birds first! They will get in!”

“Danny, what the fuck? You’re bleeding. Heck, there’s a feather stuck on your shoulder!”

Oh. So that was why his shoulder was hurting to move. 

“Fine, fine...” he took of his shirt. Judging by the stains, it wasn’t the worse he has ever been. When the wounds got in contact with the air, they started to burn. “Ouch.”

“How did you even managed to get that hurt? Dipper and Mabel are fine!”

“I might have shielded them with my body?”

“You’re insane dude” said Robbie from the door. “But that’s really cool.” 

He put the white box on the counter, taking a few pieces of gauze from it. Wendy got them wet. 

It took them some good ten minutes to take all of the blood off. After the adrenaline rush ended, he started to feel the actual extent of them damage.

The feather stuck to his shoulder was broken, and Danny might have screamed a bit when Wendy took it off. It felt like a bullet wound. Unfortunately, Danny had far too much experience with those. 

“I’ve never seen these kind of animals in my life.” Said Robbie, when he passed the needle to Wendy. Luckily, only his shoulder would need stitches. 

“Me neither. But there’s something familiar about these feathers.” Said Danny, looking at the object on his hands. 

It had about ten centimetres, with the shape of an arrowhead. If he pressed his hands on the point, it was hard and sharp, but if he touched the upper part, it was soft like an actual feather. 

“Right. It’s done. You’re lucky that I have first aid training, man.”

“Thanks Wendy” answered Danny, putting his shirt back on. “Let’s check on Dip and Mabel.”

========•

The kids were fine. Dipper and Mabel had sealed the house, but the birds were still flying around it, like vultures. 

Dipper had scratched his knee, and Mabel had a small cut on her arm, but besides that, Danny’s back had served as as decent shield. 

The other members of the band, two dudes and the cellphone girl, had appeared from... whenever they were (probably the basement), and Dipper and Mabel were filling them in. 

“Does any of you know what the hell are those things?” Asked Wendy.

“There are a lot of mythological birds. They could be anything.” Answered Dipper

“Anything with sharp feathers? They can shoot them. My shoulder learned that on the hard way” said Danny, handling Dipper the feather. 

“Dude, that’s blood? Dope.” Said the blonde guy. Danny decided to call him Hipster. 

“Wait. That was in your shoulder?” Asked Mabel. 

Danny was about to answer when Dipper yelped. “I know what these things are! Stynphalian birds! They were one of the labours of Hercules, the sixth if I’m not mistaken.”

“And how he defeated them? I only have one gun. Are they invulnerable or something?” Asked Danny 

“Why do you have a gun?” Asked Hipster. 

“He’s a ghost hunter.” Answered Mabel. 

“Ghost hunter? No way. Dude, you’re the coolest guy in Gravity. “ said Hipster.

Danny was getting a bit tired to hear that. “Can we focus? Dipper, what are their weaknesses?” 

“I... I guess it’s sound. To beat them, Hercules plays a loud instrument, the legends aren’t very precise about which, and they panic and fly away. He shoots a few with his bow, but most of them just go live in a island. They probably survived and came here”

“So... we need to make noise?” Said Phone Girl

“Man, we have just the solution for you” finished Hipster. 

===========•

Somewhere, a person gave orders to the spies, who waited patiently.

“Go to Gravity Falls. Tell me what he is doing”

Someone had to be watched closely, or he could ruin delicate plans...

==========•

Ford finished the new entry. The word “Halfa” above the quick sketch of Danny’s face, paragraphs of text. 

It was more hypothetical than anything. The boy refused to say the details about himself, so most of the things on those pages were his theories. And he had no way to test them.

Sighing, he got up. Grabbed a cup of coffee, and returned to his inventions. Eyeing the broken pieces of the portal locked in a corner, he had an idea. 

No. It was insanity. He locked that though deep down on his mind. And returned to his studies. 

He had to find a way to lock down Bill Cipher for once and for all. 

========•

Danny tested the microphone on his hands, then put it on the support. This was insane, crazy, delusional, totally unexpected.

And that’s why he knew it would work.

Wendy took her bass. Robbie finished fixing the guitar on his hands, and handed it to Danny, then took the other one for himself. Hipster set up the drums.

Who would say that he would thank Ember for teaching him to play the guitar?

Dipper’s plan was simple - play a really loud song, and scare off the birds. Apparently, one of the band members hadn’t come, and he was the lead vocalist. So Danny had to take his place. 

But what he didn’t know is that Danny had another plan. 

He and Tucker had a theory - in the same way he could shoot weaker and stronger ectoblasts, he could control how high his wail could be. In theory, it worked. Instead of wailing, he managed to whistle. Now, all he had to to was sing...

Without going ghost. 

(He was fucked)

“Ok, so let’s go over the plan again.” started Dipper “I’ll use Danny’s gun to keep the birds away. You will start playing on the balcony, and luckily the birds will go back to the forest. If it all goes wrong, you will need to run and Mabel and I will close the door.”

They were ready. Danny gave Dipper the ecto-gun, and showed him how to unlock the safety and aim. Hopefully the boy would handle it just fine (it was an energy weapon. The recoil was minimal, and the aim was really precise) 

Danny sang the first part of the song. He had to thank Ember for her violent and rushed way to teach. Luckily, he and the band had similar musical tastes. 

Then, the birds noticed them. 

It was time to rock and roll. 

“Send in your skeletons  
Sing as their bones go marching in, again  
The need you buried deep  
The secrets that you keep are ever ready  
Are you ready?  
I'm finished making sense  
Done pleading ignorance  
That whole defense”

The birds started to fly closer. Dipper prepared the aim, and Mabel increased the volume of the speakers. 

“Spinning infinity, boy  
The wheel is spinning me  
It's never-ending, never-ending  
Same old story”

Robbie and Wendy joined him in the song. 

“What if I say I'm not like the others?  
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?  
You're the pretender”

The birds backed off. As Danny sang the next part, they almost seemed to give up. 

“In time our soul untold  
I'm just another soul for sale, oh well  
The page is out of print  
We are not permanent  
We're temporary, temporary  
Same old story”

Suddenly, they plummeted down. Danny realised that they didn’t act like ravens or vultures, but like hawks - diving from the air. 

It was time to use his power. 

The refrain came. And his eyes burned green. (He hoped that no one was paying attention) 

“What if I say I'm not like the others?  
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?  
You're the pretender  
What if I say that I'll never surrender?  
What if I say I'm not like the others?  
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?  
You're the pretender  
What if I say that I'll never surrender?”

He felt his throat ache. It was like if he had drink pepper and ser his mouth on fire.  
That meant it was probably working. 

It was an invisible shockwave. The birds backed off, feathers falling everywhere. Even after they were out of sight, they kept on playing. To be sure they wouldn’t return 

Danny tasted blood. That wasn’t good. 

The last note sounded. Danny wanted to fall down and sleep, but he couldn’t do it right now, could he? 

“That was awesome dude! Sure you don’t wanna join the band?” Asked Hipster. “My ears are ringing! How did you do that your your voice man?”

“Huh... I had singing classes on high school?” Made up Danny. Shit, had they noticed?

“They’re gone?” Yelled Mabel, coming from inside the house. “I can’t hear a thing!”

Oh yeah. The band was wearing ear protections (the speakers were right behind them after all), but the team inside the house wasn’t. 

“Yes! You can come out now!” Answered Wendy. He wasn’t sure if Mabel heard them, but she walked to the balcony. 

“You guys play really well.” Commented Danny. Damn, his throat was hurting a lot. And his shoulder. “it’s so bad that this happened, I’d love to hear the rehearsal.

“Relax man. It’s Gravity, happens all the time. Besides, it was really fun to scare those birds.” Answered Wendy.

After they helped cleaning up the mess, the trio went back to the shack (avoiding the forest). It had been a long day.

“So... who taught you to play the guitar?” Asked Mabel

“A friend, sort of. Her name is Ember.”

“Like the singer?” 

“Yup” 

Dipper looked puzzled. “Your voice is weird. Are you ok?”

“It’s been a while since I sang that way, y’know? I’ll be fine” and it was true, he could feel his healing powers kicking in. 

“Now, there something we have to do when you’re fine.” Said Mabel. When no one guessed what was it, she said:

“Karaoke night!”

===========•

A pair of birds stared in the eyes of each other. They started to fly, trough the familiar path they had roamed so many times.

They had things to report.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what did y’all think? I smell a reveal coming soon... Danny is using his powers a lot recently.
> 
> The codes from the last chapter:
> 
> In the breakfast scene, dipper suggests the Beaufort Cipher. It’s a keyed one, and Ford writes a few numbers for the key. If you substitute for letters, it’s PHANTO-  
> Dipper can’t read the last number, but I think everyone can guess that the key is phantom. (Ford also says that phantom is the key for the secrets of amity park, if you want confirmation...)
> 
> A bit earlier, he had muttered under his breath: 
> 
> WawpXgbeCsaqAswUmBtvtlqEgtvObnXz
> 
> If you decode the Beaufort, key Phantom, you will get: 
> 
> TheyWillFindOutNoMatterWhatYouDo
> 
> What that could possibly mean? 
> 
> Here is your post-credit challenge:
> 
> Nawlj vfl qwva ah waw vfbg
> 
> Good luck!


	8. 8 - theories, clock tower, allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids decide to analyse Danny’s oddities. Also, stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone!   
> I’d like to thank the people who commented on the last chapter. It really motivates me, thank you!   
> Ok. Enough talking. Let’s get down to business (to defeat the huns...)

In the next morning, Mabel woke up before anyone in the house (a miracle, since Danny and Ford seemed to wake up before the sun was up). 

She stared at their guest, sleeping deeply on the cushion close to the door. The boy had an eerie appearance, but Mabel couldn’t say why... 

He was sleeping with one hand on his shoulder. Ford and Stan has freaked out when he came back with this back covered in blood. It had taken a while to explain what happened (Mabel had done most of the talking, since Danny’s voice was basically gone).

But there was something bothering her. The green light in the forest. She didn’t see it very well, but it looked like a shield. 

And she was pretty sure that Danny hadn’t activated any invention. 

He started to wake up (how long had she stared at him?) and noticed Mabel.

“Good morning, Mabel.” He said, still sleepy. At least his voice was back.

“Good morning Danny. How’s your shoulder?” 

“Better. I guess it will be a funny story to tell... the time I helped defeat a Greek legend.” He said. Then, Danny got up and grabbed some clothes on his backpack. “I’ll get changed. See ya downstairs.”

Then, he went to the bathroom on the hallway. Only after a few seconds she noticed.

Danny had green eyes in the forest. Bright, neon green. 

But now they were blue.

=========•

Mabel decided to keep that to herself. (Aka, she was going to tell Dipper and see what they would do). They had decided to trust Danny, after all, so confronting him would do no good. Dipper thought the same. 

Later that day, Danny was helping Stan in the back while Soos, Wendy, Dipper and Mabel hanged out in the store. Well, Wendy was supposed to be working, but the Shack didn’t get much visitors by this time of the year. 

“That’s so weird Mabel” said Wendy after she heard about the green shield in the forest “but it could be a device. I mean, maybe it is voice activated or something.”

That though hadn’t even crossed her mind. Soos has a different opinion.

“I’m telling y’all. He’s Phantom. It all lines up”

“You are reading too much comic books, Soos.” Answered Wendy. 

“How do you explain the eyes?”

“A trick of light? Green and blue are close man. People don’t have secret identities! That’s Hollywood stuff!”

“Well, Stan had. And Ford.” When no one agreed with Soos, he went on. “But it explains it all! How he acts about ghosts, saying as if he had personally experienced it. And he said that food sometimes comes back to life on his house. That’s a perfect scenario for a superhero origin story!”

“There is a way to prove that.” Added Dipper. “If ghost stuff affects him, we will consider your story. If it doesn’t, you owe us five dollars, each.”

“Done.”

==============•

The first thing was the silver mirror. Dipper didn’t want to admit, but Soos’ theory made sense, if it wasn’t for a simple thing.

You can’t be dead and alive at the same time. 

But, well... Dipper clearly didn’t know much about ghosts. Or, at least, not as much as he though he did. 

So, finally, Danny passed by, carrying a box from the storage to the exposition, with a code on the side :   
2;1;3;11;0;20;15;0;1;20;2;1;19;8

Dipper approached him. 

“Hey, Danny, there is something on your face... what is that?” Luckily, there actually was something on Danny’s face. It looked like a grease stain. 

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. Check it out” he said, picking the mirror from the table. 

That was it. Danny was either going to be trapped or just walk away.

“There really is. Thanks Dip.” Said Danny, cleaning the stain with his sleeve and going back to work. 

“So... it didn’t work. Pay up.” Asked Wendy. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure...” started Dipper “I mean... did you notice something odd?”

“It was normal to m- “ started Mabel. “OH! Yes. Brother. You’re a genius.”

“Care to fill us in?”

“Well, the mirror didn’t work. But Danny said it was old fashioned and not reliable. Do you all remember his shoulder? He had to get it stitched!”

“Yeah. He seemed to be used to it though. It was pretty bad. A lot of scars on his back. But why is that important?”

“Duh. He was carrying a box! A heavy one!” 

“Ha! That’s a point on my favour. Healing Factor, a lot of superheroes have it.” Said Soos. 

Maybe it was time to hear him, after all...

=============•

The moment Dipper turned a silver mirror to his face, Danny knew what they were trying to do. 

Which meant his secret was almost out. So much to keep his identity safe. 

He wasn’t worried about the kids finding out, no. They were so nice, and open, with him. (Actually, he had though about telling them the truth). But what worried him was the GIW. Or some of his ghost enemies.

The kids could get in danger if they knew about him. 

He couldn’t let that happen. Not (just) because of his obsession, even it it was a part of the reason. But because he cared for them. He wanted them to live... 

They were so close to the age he had when he died. 

They certainly acted way younger. (Or was it him who had to grow up too soon?)

He had to keep them safe. Because they deserved to live with no worries, without the weight of the world on their shoulders. 

They had already seen too much. He wasn’t going to let Cipher finish his job of destroying their childhood. 

“I will leave them as far away from the fight as I can.” He promised to himself.

Ford and Stan were old. They could look after themselves. He had no problem on telling them his secret. It was necessary.

Then, he understood why Clockwork had sent him there. Ford and Stan were tuff, but he could see the age reaching them. Yes, they could take care of themselves, but against Cipher? If it all ended up on hand-to-hand combat, and he was pretty sure it would, none of them stood a chance alone.

They had defeated Cipher together last time. The triangle wasn’t going to let them unite a second time. 

And Danny wasn’t going to let him win. 

=========•

Ford and Stan stared at each other. They were in the basement, looking at the journals. Specifically, the Bill Cipher entry. 

“Who helped him?” 

“I have no idea. But Danny is smart, his theory makes perfect sense... someone made a deal with him. Something in exchange of sharing mind and body until he recovered.”

Something bugged Stan’s mind. “What could possibly be worth it? Who wants something above everything in the world?”

“You would have to be pretty obsessed with something to let Cipher do this.” 

And the problem remained unsolved.

===========•

Jacob was baffled. Wes’ theory was... insane. Ridiculous. Impossible.

Then, why did he believe him? 

He looked at the note on his hands. Black paper, white logo. Would he dare to open it? 

Danny said it was an inside joke with his friends. At the time, he though it was related to his parents - maybe he liked Phantom to spite the older Fentons

He wasn’t so sure now. But, if Wes was right, a note with his own logo would be a given clue about his secret. 

“Of course it wouldn’t! Think...” started Wes (Jacob hadn’t even noticed that he said it out loud). “Anyone can open a random piece of paper. Fenton is so distracted that he could trow it away but accident!”

“But a note like that? Only his friends would know what it is. If it gets to their hands, they know there is something wrong.”

It made sense. And, if it was for their friends, it couldn’t be harmful, right? 

Jacob broke the seal. 

There were a few words written on it. Golden calligraphy against the black paper: 

The Clock Tower

“The Clock Tower? Wha-“

Wes never finished his sentence. Both of them felt like they were falling, and their world turned blue. 

==========•

They stared at the two birds. The animals had done an excellent work, following two of the tree targets. 

One of them was late. Really late. 

They were starting to get annoyed.

“I’m sorry master. I’m late.” A croaking voice said by their back. 

“Yes, you are.” Answered the master “what did you discover?”

“The house is blinded. I couldn’t get a look on Ford Pines. But he seems to be pretty close to the other two.”

“USELESS! You are useless to me!” The master yelled at the bird. “Leave”

The animals obeyed. The master turned the screen in front of him, typed his password [Zmw hl, Yroo’h zggzxp hgzigh. Dsl svokvw srn?]. 

The computer displayed all of the threats to his power.

“Dipper and Mabel Pines. Twins. He is intelligent, she is creative. They are a force to be reckoned. Defeated Bill three times.”

“Stanford Pines. Genius with twelve PHD’s. Created an inter dimensional portal years before Jack and Maddie Fenton, allowed Bill into this world. Can’t be possessed by him, and resists tricks. Must be eliminated”

“And then... Daniel. Popularly know as Phantom, with a long list of heroic deeds. Extremely powerful, do not engage in hand-to-hand combat without ghost weapons. Eliminate on sight. He won’t get in the way of my plans...”

“Why are you so serious, my friend?” Said a layered voice behind them.

“You know why, Cipher. They must not be sub-estimated. Especially Daniel. You never faced him, you have no idea of what the boy can do. He did defeat Pariah Dark, if you forgot. A ghost who controlled an entire dimension.”

“I am aware. But he never faced someone who controlled reality before! And I’m finally recovered. Let’s start the attack, before they can recover. Such a shame, you have no one under your power anymore, except for those ridiculous vultures.”

“And will you give me what I want after we are done?”

“Of course, my friend. The ghost zone, as promised, will be yours. I will kill the ones you asked for, and give you the object of your desire. Now, let the attack begin!”

=========•

The second thing Dipper decided to try was a Fenton Thermos. 

If Danny was a ghost in disguise, then the machine would suck him in. If he wasn’t, it wouldn’t hurt. Probably.

So, Dipper and Mabel convinced Danny to come outside, and Wendy waited with the Thermos in a nearby bush. Soos had hidden a camera somewhere, and Ford and Stan were inside the house, unaware of what was going on. 

It was all perfect. And that was no way for Danny to know... 

“I got what you are trying to do” 

There goes the plan. 

“What are we trying to do then?” Asked Mabel 

“You think I’m a ghost, don’t you? I’ve dealt with this on Amity before” answered Danny, flashbacks of Wes Weston passing trough his mind. “Look...”

“But... it all points to it!” Argues Soos “the way you talked bout ghosts on that day by Dusk 2 Dawn, your shoulder, the notebook, your eyes in the forest!” 

“That’s suíte the theory you got there, huh?” 

Danny didn’t want to show. But he was panicking. 

A lot. 

His mind was running in circles. They had found out, and now they were in danger, danger, DAN- 

“Stop it.” He though “just... play dumb”

But before he cd say anything, Soos appeared out of nowhere (ok. He was inside a bush. Whatever) and yelled “YOU’RE PHANTOM!”

No need to say, Danny froze. “Whaaaaa... what?”

“Aw, come one man. You look like him. Both are Danny’s. Fenton, phantom, and a secret lab on your house? Scientists parents? That screams superhero origin story.” 

Ok. There was no way to deny it now.   
They literally had assembled the whole puzzle in, what, four days? Three? 

It felt like so much more time, jeez. 

He sighed. “Ok. You...”

SCREEEEEEEEECH - Danny was interrupted. Part of him wanted to thanks for that. 

Then the other part of his mind noticed what, exactly, had screeched. 

Griffins.

Of course it was griffins. 

After the Stimphalyan Birds incident, he had learned to always carry some weapons in his coat - this time wasn’t any different. He took a blaster out of his coat and aimed at the mass of mythological creatures. 

They were almost at the door of the cabin when one of them managed to grab Dipper. Danny tried to shoot the animal, but it was too risky - he could hit Dipper!

More and more griffins started to land on the ground, slowly walking towards the group - there was no way to reach the shack now. 

There was only one thing to do. 

He had to protect them. No matter what. 

“I’m going ghost!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, what y’all wanted: the answers. Y’know the drill.  
> The first one is a poorly censored curse from Robbie. 
> 
> “What the [Waw uxa ec otj pbj pqw szdtvqwv]?” A voice said behind them‘ 
> 
> As the last chapter, Beaufort key phantom: 
> 
> The two in the end are vultures
> 
> I wonder what that could mean? 
> 
> And the post credit challenge: 
> 
> Nawlj vfl qwva ah waw vfbg
> 
> Check the rest of the song. 
> 
> If you didn’t do it, I suggest you do. It clicked with the story, y’know?


	9. 9 - Burnt, Portal, Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny fights, Wes and Jacob meet someone very special, and Bill changes his strategy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Sorry it took me so long, but school is being a nightmare, and I’m not exactly emotionally stable at the moment. This chapter is short, but better than nothing, I guess.
> 
> Good reading!

Stan and Ford heard shouting. Yelling. A terrifying screech. 

The kids couldn’t give ‘em a break, could they?

Ford grabbed his plasma gun, Stan took his knuckledusters from his pocket, and they ran upstairs. 

Bursting out of the door, all they saw was Danny shoving Soos and Mabel behind his back before yelling:

“I’m going ghost!”

—————————

Wes and Jacob had been falling for a while now. They couldn’t really say how long, because their world had become pure blue and purple light. 

It felt like some kind of portal. No air resistance, no cold or heat. Just the movement of reality around them. 

“So. Harmless.” Said Jacob

“Shut up. At least this proves that Fenton is Phantom.”

“Yeah. But we have to get out of here if you want to tell anyone.”

“Let me have my moment here bro.”

Jacob did. Arguing with Wes was never a funny thing. 

After a few minutes, a green point showed up on the bottom of the tunnel. 

“What is that? If I end up in Wonderland, I swear, Fenton will never hear the end of it” 

“Let’s hope we don’t fall to our deaths before.”

“I’ll haunt him. The brat won’t escape.”

“Can you haunt a ghost?”

The green point was getting closer. They were right - it was, indeed, a portal. But neither of the boys could see where it would end. Jacob closed his eyes, preparing for the impact.... 

That never came. He and Wes were floating above the ground, just a few centimetres above the purple tiles. 

Purple? 

He managed to see the environment around him - clocks, gears, screens, stairs and hourglasses composed the walls. In front of the biggest screen, a dark figure floated. 

“Where are we? Is this the Clock Tower?” Asked Wes. “And who the hell are you?”

“Oh. Welcome, Wes and Jacob. My name is Clockwork. And I have a mission for you.”

_______________

“I’m going ghost!”

He had to save dipper. He had to distract the griffins, make then leave his friends alone.

Protect. Protect. Protect. His core was yelling on his chest. The griffin had taken Dipper, and was starting to fly up. 

No. Way. 

The familiar humming of his transformation spread trough his body. He vaguely noticed a gasping sound by his back, his mind was focused on a single thing. 

Get to Dipper before it was too late. 

He shot ice on the nearest griffin. “COME AND GET ME, YOUR FEATHERED IDIOT!” 

That got their attention. Good. They would leave the others alone. 

Danny started to fly, dodging the wings and claws of the griffins. Plasma rays started to hit the flying animals, which meant Ford and Stan had finally arrived. When he was about ten meters away from Dipper, he yelled: 

“Jump!” Seeing the terrified look on the boy’s face, he completed “trust me! I can’t shoot it while it’s holding you!” 

Dipper seemed to understand him. He hit the belly of the animal with his elbow, making it screech in surprise and let Dipper go. 

Danny flew up, catching him and shooting a strong blast on the griffin’s wing. It started to fall and landed somewhere in the woods, hopefully with just a few burned feathers.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE SOOS WAS RIGHT!” Yelled Dipper, making Danny loose his focus on dodging the griffins for a second. 

“Shut up, unless you want me to drop you.” 

For Dipper, that was one of the most incredible moments of his life. He was flying!

He had to admit, when the griffin caught him he though he was dead. His mind basically shut down out of fear, but Danny’s magical girl transformation brought him back. And now his friend was carrying him trough the sky, dodging griffins and trying to land! 

Danny shot a green energy ray again, making a clear path to the ground. He dropped Dipper and tossed a gun (from where did that came from?) to Mabel.

“Got my back?” He asked 

“Sure man. Go kick some bird ass.”

And then. Oh boy. It was so different then the countless videos Dipper had watched (he might or might not have analysed the news reports from Amity Park). The cameras only caught a black and white blur, but here, in real life, he could see how incredible it seemed. 

Then, Stan and Ford joined the fight, with plasma guns and knuckle dusters. Honestly, seeing Stan punch a griffin in the face was a one-time in a lifetime experience. 

Danny seemed to dance in the air, dodging the griffins with only a few centimetres to spare. When a claw or beak was too fast to dodge, he would turn intangible, confusing the hell out of the animals. 

About ten griffins had come, and now there were only five left. One had fallen in the woods, and the other four had left, leaving just a few feathers behind. Of course Dipper grabbed one to put on the journals. 

____________________

Danny looked down. The Mistery Shack group seemed to be doing fine, which gave him space to scare off the griffins. He could barely dodge the claws and beaks coming from everywhere, but eventually they got tired. He didn’t want to hurt them more than necessary. 

After one attack cane dangerously close, he had the brilliant idea of using intangibility. Duh. Sam would slap him if she was here. He could almost hear her saying: 

“You’re a ghost Danny. Use your powers, dammit! Only you could forget you don’t need to dodge this. Idiot”

He missed her. 

After that, it got a bit easier. He still had to learn how to dodge though. 

Five griffins later, he landed on the ground, looking at the small group on the door of the shack. 

“I guess I owe some explanations?”

____________________________

“Right. And you expect us to do whatever you ask, with no explanations? Dude, you kidnapped us.” Said Wes. 

He didn’t care if this Clockwork was powerful or not. He just wanted to go back and chase Fenton with his new discovery. 

“Oh no. I’ll explain what I can. See, I need you two to get a very important item from a place I’m not, unfortunately, allowed to go. It would disrupt the timeline, and the universe would collapse.”

“And why would that be? What are you, time police?”

“More like the Master of Time. Now, listen carefully, the fate of the universe is in your hands.”

Master of Time, huh? It might be useful to hear a guy like that. Also, Wes didn’t want to end up dead or something worse. 

“There is a key, said to open any locks. The Skeleton Key. I want you to get it for me, before someone else decided to use it. It’s the only thing that could possibly lock a powerful enemy.”

“And where, exactly, is that key? And why us?” Asked Jacob 

“Because, Wes here is in a privileged position to gather information, and you are a neutral face. The key is in a vault of a secret room under the mansion of Vladmir Masters. The employer of Mr. Weston, head of security.”

Now, that was an interesting mission. 

___________________________

“So, they are stronger than I though...” whispered Cipher under his breath. “Phantom can be a problem.”

“I told you, my friend. The boy is stronger than he seems. But let’s not forget he is just a teenager, young and immature...”

“OOOOH! I see what you mean... well, let’s try a different kind of attack then. Let’s see how strong are their minds...”

___________________________________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. The codes. 
> 
> The first one was in a box Danny carried to the storage. It’s the identification numbers:
> 
> 2;1;3;11;0;20;15;0;1;20;2;1;19;8
> 
> It’s a simple number-letter substitution. It translates to: 
> 
> Back to Atbash. 
> 
> It means that the next code will be in atbash, just like a few chapters ago. 
> 
> The second one is on a computer:
> 
> Zmw hl, Yroo’h zggzxp hgzigh. Dsl svokvw srn?
> 
> Translation: And so, Bill’s attack starts. Who helped him? 
> 
> Who helped him, indeed. Any ideas?


	10. 10 - Novel, Origin, Disappointing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stories are told. Things are stolen. Bill gets annoyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, everyone!   
> I just wanted to thank who has read this until this point. It means a lot to me. Your comments and theories make my day, for real. So, I decided to post a shorter chapter today...   
> It’s been really amusing to see you all trying to find out who is Bill’s new friend.   
> So, I must announce... 
> 
> You won’t find out yet. Sorry.   
> But it will be soon.   
> Maybe, try to reread the codes and the small hints? You might have missed a clue or an instruction.

Soos was freaking out. But, like, in a good sense. He was right. He was right and no one believed him. Not even he believed him, because it was so improbable and crazy, but at the same time it made sense and... 

Well. You got it.

“So, I guess I owe some explanations?” Asked Danny, landing on the ground.

“Oh my. Oooh, man I can’t believe I met... I mean. You’re a real-life superhero man. Like, not from comic books ar a crazy sociopath videogame. I always wanted to meet you but I never though it would happen and-“ Soos was cut by Stan, who said:

“Woa there, boy. Let Danny breathe - you breathe, right?”

“Sorta?”

“Right. Weird.”

An awkward silence started, as everyone processed the sight in from of them - a glowing, dead teenager. 

“Wait a second... are you dead then?” Asked Dipper. Honestly, the whole situation was so complex, Dipper didn’t even know how to unpack all that. 

“Look. Let’s head inside, ok? I’ll answer everything.” 

Yeah. That... seemed like a good idea. A blinding white light flashed, making everyone close their eyes, and when it faded a perfectly normal Danny Fenton was standing in the grass. 

Ok, Dipper had to admit it was really cool.

Once they were all settled on the living room, Danny started:

“Yes, I am Phantom. Clockwork did send me here to give the box to Ford, as I said a few days ago. But there was also a second order - something was going to happen, and I had to be here to help.”

“Its been about two days since Ford figured part of it out. We talked, came up with a theory, and decided to keep it from you. We weren’t sure of what would happen, and wanted to let you guys have your summer while it lasted... I’m sorry.”

Dipper was irritated now. Ford was supposed to trust them! They had faced so much worse! 

“I understand you.” Said Mabel. “I mean, I’m a bit sad you didn’t trust us, but if it is something so confidential... What do you think will happen, anyway?”

“No. Wait. I have a better question.” Said Wendy (she had been so quiet this whole time, Danny almost forgot she was there). “How? How can you be dead and...?”

Danny wasn’t going to escape that conversation, was he? Better rip the band aid off by once then. 

“I died. I’m dead. But not fully. It all happened a few yeast ago-“

“Yes! Origin story time!” Yelled Soos, getting a a few confused looks from the older Pines and Danny. “Sorry. I just wanted to know.”

“Anyway” continued Danny, as if nothing had happened “my parents were working on their biggest project so far. The Ghost Portal, a passageway trough dimensions. It was meant to be a window, allow them to see the realm of the dead, the Ghost Zone. But it didn’t work at first, and they had spent their last ten years working on it, so they got really sad.”

“Then, I decided to take a look inside. Maybe it was just a loose wire, they do that kind of thing all the time. So I put on a safety suit and stepped in. But it was so dark inside it, and I ended up tripping and fell... and the thing turned on. Turns out, there was a second switch inside, and I hit my hand on it”

Ford’s eyes got wide at that. Danny hadn’t told him that part of the story. He wasn’t even sure why he was telling those kids that.

It would be the first tine he would have to explain that story. Jazz had found out on her own, and Sam and Tucker were there, after all. 

“But that would imply... the energy of an entire dimension running trough...” Ford’s brain seemed to be running in circles inside his head. 

“It hurt. A lot. Thousands of volts from the portal electrocuted me, I couldn’t breathe or see. My friends were there, they said I started to scream. But I have no memory from that.”

“And I was supposed to die. Heck, I died. But the electricity has and interesting effect on ectoplasm - it makes it stay stable on our world. Stable enough for it to bond with my DNA, fuse my ghost and my body. If the portal was leading to any other dimension, I’d be dead. But it turned me into a Halfa. Half ghost. The rest is history, I started to fight off the ghosts that decided to wreck havoc here on Earth, made some new friends and all of that”

It felt good to take that weight off his chest. Terrifying, too, because it had been one of the worse days of his life. 

Heh. When your death isn’t the worst thing that ever happened to you, you know your life is fucked up. 

“That’s... intense.” Said Soos 

“We are sorry for asking you about that” completing Wendy “but we have been trough so much. Had to...”

“Make sure I’m not a imposter. I get you. It’s actually good to finally tell this to someone.” And it really did. It was one less secret on his shoulders. “But now. The enemy we are facing.”

“Who are they?”

“Bill Cipher is back.”

_______________________

The FentonWorks building was a unique sight. From the UFO structure to the burn marks on the walls, the place was the registered brand of Amity Park. 

“Are you sure they aren’t mad scientists?” Asked Jacob

“Oh, no. They are. But only when it’s about ghosts.”

“And why are we here again?”

“To ask... about ghosts.”

“Great.”

Wes groaned and hit the doorbell. 

A few minutes later, Maddie Fenton opened the door. “Oh, hello sweeties. May I help you? Please, come in”

“Hello Doctor Fenton!” Replied Wes, waking into the house “We were wondering if we could ask some questions-“

“ABOUT GHOSTS?” Resonated the booming voice of Jack Fenton, his missive fibre coming from the basement. 

“Now now, dear. I’m sure these nice boys don’t want to hear about ghosts...”

“Actually... that’s basically it.” Said Wes “you see, we wanted to ask if it is possible, hypothetically, for a human person use ghost things to break into a house.” Seeing the weird glare Maddie was casting over them, he completed “for a novel Jacob here is working on. Right, Jacob?”

“YES, right. I’m a writer. And writers need... to know... that kind of thing. It’s a mystery novel. Very thrilling. Spooky.”

Maddie seemed to relax, and Jack... well, Jack was glowing with happiness. 

“Great! Let me show you the lab then, young boy.” 

And so it started a long tour on the lab. While Jacob came up with plot elements to keep the man distracted, Wes looked around for the really interesting stuff. The whole place was a mess, which only made his job easier - a wrist ray here, an ectogun there... and as soon as Jack put away the “ghost espionage devices”, as he started to call them after hearing Jacob’s story... well, Wes was going to give it back. 

Jack’s words sounded like gibberish for Wes, nothing more than a white noise. If he was in a comic book, he could imagine the random letters in the air: Gsviv ziv ulfi ozyh lm gsrh hglib....

Finally, after what felt like years, they were back on Jacob’s room. 

“Man, that Jack dude can be... intense.”

“Luckily, he gets really distracted when you talk about ghosts. Here, I got us some weapons, and this phasing thing... I think he called it the Fenton Phaser... oh, there is a prototype for invisibility, what was it called again?”

“I thing it was inviso-belt? What kind of name is that?” Said Jacob, picking up the device. “But... I really came up with some good concepts there. Maybe I should write it down.”

“Dropping physics to become a writer, cousin?”

“No way. Just an idea...”

And so, their quest to break into Masters’ Manor was prepared. 

________________________

Bill was annoyed. His partner in crime had been of no help so far. Those birds got no information for him, and, honestly, Bill no longer needed someone to help him keep his body. 

He wasn’t in 100% of his strength yet, hence the fact that he hadn’t attached Gravity Falls by himself yet. He was trusting his new friends would take care of the new boy, especially the Stymphalian ones... 

And they had failed him.   
So had his new parter. 

Bill was getting rid of him as soon as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No codes last chapter. As I said, I wasn’t feeling well when I posted it’. But I’m better now!
> 
> So, and extra challenge:
> 
> ... ...- -... --..-- / / --.. -- -... / / -- ...- -.. .... / / ..- .. .-.. -. / / -. -..- - ..-. -..- .--. ...- --. ..--..
> 
> Good luck, and remember: buy gold!


	11. 11 - break in, tea, key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wes can have a little crime. As a treat. 
> 
> Or: Wes breaks in a huge mansion and no one is surprised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no explanation for myself. *trows chapter in a volcano to appease the eldritch gods*

Wes looked both ways before stepping onto the corridor. He and Jacob were inside the Masters Manor, about one hour away from the town. Dodging the security had been easy, after all, Wes could access the cameras and the digital locks trough his laptop (he may or may not have hacked into his dad’s computer and copied the security program). 

They were almost on the library. According to the system, the most precious things were there. And, weirdly, it was the less secure room. 

All the other windows had motion detectors, except for those. And it was the only one with a normal lock, all of the others had magnetic ones.

“Ok, let me disable the cameras so we can get in” said Wes, putting them on loop. “Right. We’re clear.” 

Opening the door slowly, they stepped into the large room. A lot of items behind glasses (probably priceless things) and tall shelves welcomed them. 

“This dude really is a fan of the Packers” noted Jacob. “I can’t see any keys. And no skeletons either.”

“Well, it has to be here. There aren’t any other expositions in the house, and I doubt Masters would leave a dangerous ghost item where anyone can touch”

“Maybe we could-“ Jacob was interrupted when the phasing device started to beep and show numbers on the screen. It looked like a small box, with a glass side (the screen) and a small antenna popping out. It could be clipped on a belt, and that’s exactly were it was right now. 

The code made absolutely no sense.

9;25;14;17;0;6;18;18;26;6;0;15;8;6;12;.;0;22;6;0;21;18;0;10;2;5;24;22;1;20;0;2;1;0;6;2;26;18;7;21;22;1;20;?;0;10;21;14;7;0;10;22;25;25;0;7;21;18;0;24;18;12;0;17;2;?;0;10;21;14;7;0;17;2;18;6;0;22;7;0;2;3;18;1;?

Suddenly, Jacob’s feet stared to sink trough the ground. Wes jumped to grab him, but a numb sensation spread trough his body - the world got transparent, which blue lines and shadows instead of the normal objects. 

They continued to sink trough the floor, passing through the ground - and in they moment their vision went dark. Wes was afraid that they would keep going until they reached the center of the Earth... 

Until they fell on a big room. Under the library. 

A secret lab. 

“Wow. Awesome!” Said Jacob “look! The key!” He pointed to a glass display. Behind it, a white object floated.

It was make of bone, and a tiny skull with ruby eyes decorated one of the points. It also had a green glow, floating above a red velvet cushion. 

Wes opened the glass box and picked it up. Meanwhile, Jacob stared at a big computer on a wall. 

“Hey, Wes, look at this...” 

It was a photo of Phantom, mid fight. Random letters were scrambled under it, like a file - clearly coded.

Fhv Xzvhzi mld. Xsvxp gsv lgsvi xszkgvih... 

Wes felt tempted to write it down, but just as he was picking up his phone, the screen went dark. He touched the keyboard, and the screen showed a massage: enter password. 

“Dammit. Let’s get out of here.” 

After a few moments, they found a lever that activated a staircase to the second floor. Footsteps stared to approach, and Jacob pulled Wes behind a shelve just as Vlad Masters showed up. 

Jacob gestured to the invisibility device on Wes’s pocket - a small metal rod with a few buttons on the base. He pressed one of them, holding onto his cousin’s hand, and both turned invisible. 

Sneaking out with no sound, soon they were out of the manor. 

Had they stayed, they would see Vlad turn into Plasmius and dive trough the ground, mumbling something to himself.

____________________________________

“What do you mean, Bill is back? We erased him!”

“You erased his existence in the Mindscape. But there are still a lot of dimensions where he existed to a certain point, there is even a remain of his energy on the statue on the forest. 

Anyone could’ve helped him. I asked around on the Ghost Zone, but no one heard of him, which means we don’t even know if the person who helped him is from a know dimension.”

Silence fell over them. Dipper felt a shiver coming up his spine - he had thought they were safe... 

“Hey. There isn’t much we can do. Stan and I put some sensors around the town, and Danny has people who can warn him if anything changes.” Said Ford “the best think we can do is try to relax and be ready.”

After a while, Dipper, Mabel, Soos and Wendy ended up agreeing with them. 

——————————————————

“We need to find a way to capture him. Something that can trap his conscience forever.” Said Dipper to Danny, when they were up on their room. 

“I’ve though about that. But I can’t see any device able to hold that thing. Not if the stuff I’ve heard is true. I mean, if he was a ghost... we could use the thermos. And I could adapt it for any inter-dimensional being, but it might decay, crack or simply not hold his entire power. Then we’re screwed.” 

Then, an idea started to form on the back of Dipper’s mind. “What if we don’t trap him in one device? What if we do a layered thing, like an onion!”

“That... that could actually work. Yes, if we made layers to restrain the fails on our project... and locked it somewhere no one could open...”

“Then we can beat Bill for good.”

___________________________________

In the next day, Dipper and Danny explained their plan for the three other Pines. It was really simple, actually - trap Bill on the thermos, shove it inside a ghost shield, put the ghost shield inside a unicorn barrier, put the whole thing inside the chest Clockwork gave Danny (because then, the containment would exist outside the timeline). And, to end it, Danny would hide it in the Ghost Zone. 

“I could leave it with the Yetis on Far Frozen, the keep a lot of magic objects safe. Or give it to Pandora and her greek guard, perhaps even Clockwork himself.” 

To Mabel, it was still so surreal to know that the boy in front of her had died and became a superhero. And talk about ghosts as an entire, developed society, with rules and even a political organisation...

“We just have one problem. The thermos can’t hold it forever, the battery will end someday.” Danny knew it wasn’t 100% true. After all, Clockwork had Dan in a thermos. But the ancient ghost also had a way to keep the battery charged. And he wouldn’t be able to do it if it was inside the other layers.

“Oh, I know the guy who can solve that!” Said Dipper “it’s time to meet our inventor friend!”

_____________

“HOW COULD SOMEONE STEAL IT?” A fanged, vampire-like halfa yelled to the ceiling. 

The skeleton key was missing. But... how could someone steal it? His security cameras were intact, and the lab was hidden. There was no evidence of the passage being open, and the only one who knew about it was Daniel. Who wasn’t close to his house in the moment. 

Oh, no problem. He could retrieve it. He had to, somehow. The key could open any lock, but it also had a second power - it could seal any lock. Bound it to the soul of whoever turned the key, and only if their essence stopped existing or or the same key was used it would open again. 

Why would someone want to steal it? How would anyone know where it was? 

______________________

“That was close” said Jacob, after they left the Masters Manor and hid in the woods near the building. “That was really close”

“Now what? Are we supposed to give this to Clockwork? Walk with the key around?”

As if answering Wes’ question, another black paper, sealed with wax, popped out of thin air. 

The mark was different this time. Blue wax and a stylised gear. Inside, the same message: The Clock Tower. 

And there they go, sucked by the same portal. Perhaps that was a way to transport them to the tower without directly messing with the timeline. If someone read the words on a piece of paper... well, it’s not like Clockwork was opening a portal in front of them. 

“Ah, the Weston cousins. Thank you for the key. I suggest you to return now, things may get... interesting in Amity Park” said the ghost, taking the key from Wes and opening a portal on their backs. “Unless you want to stay for tea?” A table with a boiling kettle and a few mismatched cups materialised out of thin air on their front. 

Wes knew what he was offering. Stay, and watch, but you might lose some precious time... or go back and get ready. For something he couldn’t tell. 

Well. People always say to not accept food from the dead anyway. Even if it hurt Wes - he had to know what Fenton was doing - it made more sense. 

So, they left. 

“All is as it should be”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this chapter has the hardest codes so far. Good luck my dear readers. I told you it would get harder.  
> It’s also really small, but I didn’t know how to make it bigger so here it is. Sorry. 
> 
> Now. Codes. 
> 
> Gsviv ziv ulfi ozyh lm gsrh hglib....  
> (That’s Jack’s babbling about ghosts)  
> Translation: there are four labs on this story.  
> Hum, let’s count. Fenton’s, Ford’s... and now that you read this chapter, Vlad’s. Which is the third one? 
> 
> And the bonus one. It was Morse, and it translates to:
> 
> SVB, ZMB MVDH UILN NXTFXPVG?
> 
> That, in Atbash, means “HEY, ANY NEWS FROM MCGUCKET?“
> 
> Yup. That was it. Good luck with this chapter’s


	12. Theories, Madman and Battery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soos, once again, comes to save the day. And so does Mabel.   
> Cipher’s ally is finally confirmed and revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES I’M STILL ALIVE AND THIS STORY IS NOT ABANDONED! 
> 
> Sorry guys. I had a few rough months. But I’m back (with a very short chapter sorry), and I will try to finish this fic. Please note: I’ll “try”
> 
> Anyway have the chapter.

Apparently, the “guy who could solve the battery problem” was also the local madman, and a brilliant scientists. Danny didn’t think it could get weirder than that. Gravity falls really was a very strange town. And, well, since Ford, Stan, Dipper and Mabel weren’t impressed at all by the place, he supposed everything was normal. 

The house itself looked like a very fancy cellar, if you ignored the machinery and the metal tubes and all the crazy inventions. Danny recognised a few of them, like the “lake monster” and the remains of the memory gun Mabel had told him about. 

But there was some stuff that didn’t make any sense. Full of wires and screens and weird crystals. Or maybe Danny was just too used to inventions resembling household objects. 

“Old Man McGucket!” Yelled Mabel, as a tiny man with a beard longer then his own body came out from behind a particularly big pile of metal junk. 

“Little Mabel! Not so little anymore, heh?” 

“Hello, old friend” Said Ford, behind Danny. “We need your help”

“Is it somewhat related to the multiple dimension gates, the ectoplasmic energy coming from that boy and the return of Bill Cipher?” 

Danny blinked a few times. “How do you know about-“

“Boy, that’s pretty evident! My energy sensors have been going crazy for the past four days!”

“McGugett is a mad genius” said Mabel. “He turned the mystery shack into a giant robot to fight Bill once!” 

Danny’s head was starting to hurt. “Whatever. We need help. Can you find a way to keep this charged forever?” Said Danny, pulling the thermos from the inside of his dark brown coat “or maybe a generator?”

“I can surely try” 

“I’ll help you, old friend” said Ford “it’s been a while since we last worked together” 

And with that, the old man, Ford and Danny got to work.

————

Dipper though that he couldn’t get more confused then the day he read Danny’s notebook. He was wrong. 

Oh yes, sure, he understood science. He loved physics. And he could follow what they were doing most of the time... and then they started to work with ectoplasm

“No” Danny was saying “that won’t do. Ectoplasm isn’t liquid”

“But it’s basically ghost blood! You said it was liquid!”

“When it’s contained cold, sure. But it will heat up. And then it will become solid and gas at the same time” 

“But that makes no sense! We are not changing the pressure!”

“You’re still thinking on terms of matter and energy. Ectoplasm is both and neither, like light but also not-“ 

After that, Dipper started to mess with the other inventions. Maybe he could find something that could help, something that they didn’t consider before. Stan and Soos joined him, completely unnoticed by the three scientists in the middle of the room. 

“Dude. If those three can’t find an answer, we are doomed” said Soos, always the honest one. 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they will figure it out!” Said Mabel, playing with one of the rainbow beads in her necklace. “Just look at them, so calm and looking intelligent-“

Dipper spared a look to the table. McGuckett was currently trying to fix the thermos with his beard, and Ford had a look of ultimate confusion on his face. “No, look. According to the Lavoisier law-“ 

“Ok, fine, but if you consider Einstein’s general relativity-“ 

“But we are currently observing the ectoplasm!”

“Yeah but it is the exact opposite of living matter, therefore-“ 

Dipper raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure of that Mabel?”

Mabel shrugged. “Ok, maybe they need more time. I guess that the whole problem is that they are looking at this wrong” 

Danny snapped his head towards them, interrupting Ford’s passionate rant about the basic laws of physics and magic. “What do you mean, Mabel?” 

“Well. You’re looking at this as if Cipher were a ghost. But he’s a multi-dimensional being. Ford, you’re looking at this as if it was a magic problem, or a physics problem, but it’s actually far away from this. And McGuckett, you are thinking like a mechanical. But in reality, it’s quite simple no?”

“Simple? We are dealing with a complete new set of laws of physics here-“

“Yeah, but they don’t exactly apply inside the thermos, do they?” Added Soos “it’s like the mirror, a trap. And your problem is just the battery... you just need to keep it charged dude.”

“Well, yeah. But for that we need a source of energy” said Danny “which is what we’re trying to come up with”

“Can’t you use Cipher’s energy against him?” Said Stan “the little prat generates a field, I felt it when it possessed me” 

The whole room went quiet. 

“That... that can actually work. Mabel, Soos, you are two geniuses. McGuckett, help me here, Ford, get the computer. I’ll reprogram the Thermos-“ 

Mabel was smiling. “How did you know all that, Mabel?” Asked Dipper 

“Hey, they are scientists. Always overcomplicating things.” 

“You will never cease to amaze me, sister”

“I know, bro-bro. I know.” 

————

He was getting tired of Cipher’s bullshit. 

The stupid triangle had power. He had allies. They could’ve attacked Gravity Falls already, and his end of the deal would be complete - with his body as a vessel, the field wouldn’t contain him, and after the town was under their command, he would get his end of the deal. 

The whole Ghost Zone. And the two persons he loved the most. 

He knew where the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire were. Locked into the yeti land, the Far Frozen. But he wasn’t a fool - he couldn’t attack the place without allies, and stealing was out of question. 

“I am the rightful sucessor. I locked the sarcophagus!” He whispered to himself. 

He was going to betray Cipher as soon as he had the artefacts. 

Under the lights of his lab, Vlad Plasmius smiled. 

A ghost king could defeat Cipher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so. This was short, sorry. 
> 
> The codes.   
> The first one was a double layered code. Numbers to letters then Caesar, change 13.   
> It read:
> 
> VLAD SEEMS BUSY IS HE WORKING ON SOMETHING? WHAT WILL THE KEY DO? WHAT DOES IT OPEN? 
> 
> The second one was in Atbash code. It read “use Caesar now, check the other chapters” and basically was a hint for the second step of the first code!
> 
> I’ll try to update as soon as I can. But this work is not abandoned and it won’t be!

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you all think? I’d love to hear your opinions, if I should go on with this or not.


End file.
